Vernon Search and Rescue's heli-winch team got off the ground as the team responded to a number of calls last weekend.
VSAR's Coralie Nairn said the search and rescue team responded to five calls in two days, though three of those calls ended up being for the same incident.
The first call on Saturday, Feb. 1, came in as multiple people who had fallen through the ice at a lake in the Nakusp area.
Two other calls came in around the same time. In all, VSAR had three reports from three different GPS locations in the same area. Nairn said that caused some confusion for the team, but the calls ended up being the same incident, which was a false alarm; satellite communication via the International Apple Dispatch Centre determined no one had fallen through the ice.
Then on Sunday, shortly after 2 p.m., VSAR was tasked with rescuing a person with a broken femur in the Monashees towards Arrow Lakes. VSAR deployed a multi-pronged response with its Air Rescue One helicopter winch team and a ground team. In the waning daylight, the helicopter team was the first to arrive.
"There were some individuals in a work party that had been in the area and they were actually able to provide some immediate first aid, get a fire going, cover the injured person with some blankets so cold exposure was less of a hazard," Nairn said. "They did a really good job there."
The helicopter team was able to land and get its technicians on the ground to perform the rescue.
The team was en route back to Vernon to hand the injured person off with BC Ambulancee. About 15 minutes from the Vernon airport, VSAR received another call from the neighbouring Shuswap Search and Rescue team.
"They had an injured sledder in the Hunters Range area on the Sicamous side," Nairn said, adding the sledder had suffered a spinal injury.
After dropping off the person with a broken femur, the heli team went to the Shuswap call. The team had permission to bring the sledder straight to the hospital but was out of daylight, and so it landed at the Vernon airport where an ambulance was waiting.
"It was a great coordinated effort. BC Ambulance was hopping this weekend. They do a lot of work that we don't account for," Nairn said.
