A forest rescue to save an injured paraglider involved more than a dozen Agassiz-Harrison emergency workers this past weekend.
According to Kent-Harrison Search and Rescue (KHSAR) manager Neil Brewer, team volunteers were paged to Mount Woodside on Saturday, Nov. 28 at 2:45 p.m.; Agassiz RCMP received a call moments later, according to RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Mike Rail.
The paraglider pilot – a 47-year-old man from Burnaby – crashed into the treetops not far away from the launch site. When attempting to rescue himself, the pilot dropped 30 feet and sustained serious injuries.
At about 4 p.m., KHSAR members were able to access the injured pilot, carefully lowering him out of the woods and down a slope to a logging road, where he was placed in a truck and slowly transported down Mount Woodside Forest Service Road to a waiting ambulance to be transported to Abbotsford General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
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Brewer said 15 KHSAR volunteers were involved in the rescue. The paraglider rescue marked the 66th call for the local team this year, which is an all-time record.
They spent 5,328 hours on incident responses, training, administration and maintenance so far this year.
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