Over a dozen people and dogs were recently rescued by law enforcement and search and rescue in the Wildhorse area northeast of Cranbrook after being stranded by a washout that destroyed a bridge on a forest service road.
On Saturday, Aug. 2 Cranbrook RCMP received a dispatch from a Garmin inReach device, alerting them to distress approximately 13 kilometres up the Wildhorse Forest Service Road.
The location is a popular spot for hikers, as it connects to spots like Bear Lake, Lakit Lookout and used to go all the way through to Top of the World provincial park. According to police, a total of 18 people and seven dogs were stranded following a significant bridge washout.
The Cranbrook RCMP detachment immediately engaged Search and Rescue (SAR), Emergency Management BC (EMBC) and the RCMP Police Dog Service (PDC) officer.
"We got a call requesting assistance because a group of people had been trapped because the bridge got washed out," said Kimberley Search and Rescue manager Peter Reid. "That鈥檚 pretty significant, that鈥檚 a proper forest service bridge, it wasn鈥檛 like a bailey bridge or anything like that."
Reid said the reason Kimberley SAR was called was that due to the significant flooding in the area, it looked to be a swift water event.
"Once we got the request we talked to Police Dog Services," he said. "The new Police Dog handler in town came up and supported us as well and then we decided that the best thing to do was basically heli-bump everybody over the bridge."
Reid said the safest option was determined to be getting everyone out with a helicopter.
"The sides of the slope were unstable and our concern would be that there would be water still held further up and it could flash flood," Reid said. "You know what happened down in Texas, so what we will always do is go to what we feel is the safest way and the safest way was high to land heli-bump over and just fly as many people as we could get out as quickly as we could get them out. That meant that their vehicles were abandoned on the other side, but our concern is always people, not equipment."
All-in, 15 people and seven dogs were taken out by helicopter. The helicopter takes three people per ride, so it worked out to be about seven or eight trips.
Dylan Hoodicoff was in that area hiking with his partner and her kids that day and said that when they first got there, they let their dogs stop in the creek for a drink and a play. When they came down from their hike to Kilometre 13 at around 5:30 p.m. they realized there was a mudslide as the bridge was gone.
"At first we thought we had taken a wrong turn, because the bridge was gone and we got out and this little creek went from a small little stream to basically like the Skookumchuk River coming down out of there," Hoodicoff said. "It was so torrential, it was crazy what a torrent it was coming down and the mud and the rocks, trees were snapped like twigs and yeah, the bridge was totally gone."
Hoodicoff said they had to get out of there because they heard trees cracking up in the bush and were worried the whole side of the hill could slide down.
A group of other people began to gather and fortunately, one of them had an inReach satellite communication device.
"Thank goodness someone did, because I didn鈥檛 have service," Hoodicoff said. "It was actually the third lady that showed up, she had an In-Reach that she had never used before and got to use it and thank goodness, because it would have been a bit of a hike down the hill to get service."
"The benefit to this whole thing was is we got great comms," Reid said. "So somebody hit their In-Reach device, was able to communicate what was going on, communicated directly with the RCMP about that, so that worked out really well."
Reid said SAR members began by briefing everyone with how to operate around a helicopter, before starting to load people and dogs into them and flying them off.
A pit bull who was a bit skittish from the sound of the helicopter was the first to be lifted out, and a Great Dane was the last to go.
Hoodicoff said that throughout the ordeal, everyone remained calm and he said the SAR members did a great job.
"Everyone was pretty good; we actually gathered up and one of the side-by-side guys 鈥� he pulled a couple of logs down and started a fire and we all stood around the fire and socialized," he said. "Nobody was panicking or anything. SAR was great, they kept in communication and let us know what was going on through the In-Reach. Everybody was pretty good."
Reid commended Hoodicoff and the rest of the group for how they conducted themselves in a tough situation. Everyone made it out with no injuries.
"I thought they made some really good decisions," he said. "They didn鈥檛 bother trying to get through, they waited and made in my view very smart decisions. And then my understanding is they went in the next day and were able to stabilize the slope to some degree and were able to get some vehicles out."
Staff Sargeant Barry Graham of the Cranbrook RCMP thanked Kimberley SAR, the EMBC and all other involved responders for their "swift and effective efforts."
鈥淲e are thankful for the quick action and professionalism of all responding agencies,鈥� Graham said. 鈥淭his incident is a reminder of how rapidly conditions in remote areas can change. We encourage anyone venturing into the backcountry to always carry emergency communication devices and be prepared for the unexpected."
