A recreational fisherman had to be hoisted to safety from the Capilano River, Tuesday morning (Sept. 28).
Around 8:40 a.m., crews from West Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver were dispatched to the river when water levels started to rise, stranding a recreational fisher on the sandbar immediately below Capilano River Bridge along Highway 1.
“It was determined that the best rescue was to do a pick-off off the bridge deck,” said assistant fire chief David Dales. “With West Vancouver Fire [& Rescue] doing downstream containment, as rescuers for the rescuers, the district deployed a technical rescue off the bridge, lowered a firefighter down and then secured the fisherperson and then brought him back up to the bridge deck.”
The subject was a man in his 50s and “not from the area,” Dales said.
Conducting a rope rescue from the bridge requires West Vancouver police to shut down one lane, so Dales said they like to get in and out quickly. Crews got Metro Vancouver staff to close valves on the Cleveland Dam, which slows the water flow down below, although it does take some time.
The Capilano has a habit of becoming swollen without warning to people on the river. Dales said they are called to the sandbar below the bridge about 15 times per year, almost all of them during the salmon season between September and November.
“We might be having three millimetres an hour of precipitation in North Van and we could be having 45 up river,” he said. “All of a sudden, very quickly, they're just trapped on the sandbar, and it's just their exit which has been eliminated. … If you are operating in the North Vancouver environment, just be prepared for rapid weather change, and that includes water level.”
