Firefighters usually save lives by applying water, but on Thursday afternoon, two of Prince George's firefighters and one Mountie saved a young man by getting him out of troubled waters. All were off-duty at the time.
Firefighters Rob Lowet and Brad Johnston, RCMP member Valerie Hesketh, Lowet's son Kyson and daughter Dylan, plus some friends, were all out in a boat on West Lake. Despite the stereo, the conversations and the engine, Hesketh thought she heard a call for help and silenced the group in the boat.
They cut the motor and scanned the water, quickly spotting two young men in danger.
"We could see one of them really struggling to stay above water, and his friend frantically trying to help him stay afloat, but both of them were exhausted and things were getting bad for them," said Lowet. "It was the friend that was calling for help, the one in trouble wasn't making any sounds, really, he must have sucked in some water and you could just see the fear in his eyes."
The boaters pulled alongside and the two firefighters went into the water to buoy the two teens before guiding them to shore.
"He said sorry to us a lot, over and over again," Lowet said. "We kept telling him no, there was nothing to be sorry for, we were just glad to be there when we were. We don't usually boat around that part of the lake, so it was just the right place and the right time."
What puzzled the boaters was how near the two victims were to the busy public beach, yet all the people assembled there paid no attention. The firefighters speculated that no one knew the early stages of a drowning incident were underway. The way the wind was, and their own position on the water, may have given them in the boat a better sound path than the people on the beach.
In a visual sense, drowning gives off few signs. Had they not been two in the water together, Lowet speculates that a tragedy would have been much more likely.
Both Lowet and Johnston are trained in swiftwater rescue, so a warm lake on a pleasant summer afternoon was not a difficult rescue for them.
The boaters dropped the two teenagers off on the beach with some people they knew. They didn't even exchange a full set of introductions so the firefighters and the Mountie had no idea who the teenagers are or how to reach them.
