Daring rescue frees boaters from Des Chenes rapids
Published: July 24, 2005
Dozens of firefighters from Gatineau and Ottawa converged to rescue a pair of boaters trapped in a swirling eddy in the Des Chenes rapids across from Britannia Beach yesterday afternoon.
The couple’s inflatable boat was caught by strong currents and carried toward the ruins of a 19th-century mill that sits about 100 metres from the Quebec side of the river, where they were pinned in an alcove against the wall.
They used a cell phone to call for aid, initiating a rescue operation that saw the military’s search and rescue team at CFB Trenton on standby, and ended successfully almost two and a half hours later.
“We’re very lucky not to have any deaths today,” said Andre Lefrancois, the chief of operations for the Gatineau fire rescue team, speaking in French. “It’s one of the worst possible places for a boat to go — for us, too.”
The rescued couple refused to comment after their rescue, but asked to be returned to Westboro Beach, on the Ottawa side of the river.
The mill ruins are only approachable by boat, so two water rescue boats from the Ottawa fire department and another from Gatineau were sent. A four-man team of “araignees” –the “spiders” who perform dangerous vertical rescues — approached the mill from downstream, where the water is calmer, and scaled the six-metre-tall structure.
From there, they worked their way along the top of the ruins until they were directly above the trapped couple. After lowering a ladder and ropes, firefighter Mario Simard descended in a harness to help extricate the exhausted boaters.
The final hurdle was manoeuvring back along the top of the ruins to where the rescue boat was waiting.
“The woman panicked going across a narrow section, so I had to rig up ladders on either side for support,” Lieut. Alain Deseve explained in French.
Accidents and rescues are quite common in that section of rapids, which gains strength as the channel narrows between a small island and the riverside, Mr. Lefrancois said.
Just a few feet from where the rescue took place yesterday, the remains of a boat that floundered two weeks ago are still visible. In that case, the Ottawa water rescue team was able to unload two people from where their boat was stranded just before it broke loose and crashed into the mill ruins.
Dozens of onlookers stopped to watch yesterday’s operation from the busy bike path that runs along the river’s edge. The ruins, along with the small islands in the area, make it an attractive place to picnic and swim.
Steve Dean, a teenager from Maitland, bikes to the ruins regularly to go swimming, but had acquired a new respect for the rapids even before yesterday’s drama. The day before, he was walking along the shore when he slipped on the algae and fell into the current.
“I was pulled by the current all the way past the ruins,” he said. “The only reason I’m still here is that I got caught in the whirlpool between two sets of rapids, which let me catch my breath.”
At least 17 Gatineau firefighters and another 10 from Ottawa were involved in the three-hour operation, fire officials said.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: