Kelowna emergency crews rescued a young couple who were stranded on a small island on Mission Creek near Pasadena Road Wednesday afternoon.
Dillon Brotzel and his wife Paige Wood were rafting down Mission Creek when Paige’s raft suddenly collided with a large pile of debris.
“She got caught in a really sticky spot and I had to get out of my boat and go and get her,” says Brotzel. “That’s when we lost our rafts and got stuck under a tree, and we ended up on the island.”
Emergency personnel arrived at the scene, and worked for over an hour to set up the rescue.
Using a system involving ropes and a dinghy, Dillon and Paige were safely brought to shore.
“They were awesome guys,” Brotzel said about the emergency crews. “They did what they could, and I’m glad they came.”
Deputy Fire Chief Scott Cronquist says this is a prime example of how dangerous Mission Creek can be at this time of year.
“The Creek is unique in the way it’s shaped, and from the earlier floods we have a lot of debris in the Creek,” says Cronquist. “We always want to tell people to stay off the Creek during this time until the danger has passed.”
Cronquist noted that this kind of rescue happens quite a bit during flooding season, and that fatalities have happened due to people being careless on the Creek.