A woman narrowly avoided a fatal injury following an incident in Lynn Canyon, says an official from District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services.
Crews responded after a call came in around 5:35 p.m. Tuesday evening about a male stuck on a cliff band in the area below Pipeline Bridge. But during the man’s efforts to climb along the cliffs, he unknowingly caused rocks to fall into a pool below, where his girlfriend and another bystander were at the time, according to Deputy Fire Chief Mike Danks.
As a result, the bystander’s elbow was cut open and a rock slashed an eight-inch gash in the woman’s back. Both patients were able to move downstream, where fire crews then treated them on scene. The bystander was driven to a clinic, while the woman was escorted to a waiting ambulance.
Meanwhile, fire crews used ropes to pull the man stuck on the cliff to safety.
Because the initial call just involved the man, first responders were faced with a much more complicated situation when they arrived, Danks said.
“The consequences could have been very severe,” he said, referring in particular to the injured woman.
“When you think about the size of the rock that hit her that would have caused that [gash] and the internal organs in that area, and her head was unprotected,” Danks said. “This woman was very lucky she walked away from this.”
The man didn’t want to be in the water, so he was trying to navigate the cliff to keep watch of his girlfriend, Danks said, adding that alcohol could have been a factor affecting the man’s judgment.
“You need to be very cognizant of your surroundings,” Danks said. “If you are navigating a cliff above the river in a well-known swimming spot, you need to be very aware of potentially dropping anything down on people. That’s a major hazard.”
“If one of those rocks that hit the female hit her in the head, crews are saying that she would not have survived,” he added.
With an injured cliff jumper being rescued in Lynn Canyon the day before, Danks stressed that conditions in these areas are variable and unpredictable.
“Cliff jumping is never safe. There’s a lot of debris, undercurrent and rocks that are not visible,” he said. “You could do a jump one day, and the next day, that jump may not be safe.
“When you do these jumps, you’re not only putting yourself at risk, but also the first responders.”
