Penticton Fire’s marine rescue team was called into service Wednesday afternoon when two women were carried out into Skaha Lake.
The fire department received a call of two older women in distress on the lake at around 2 p.m.
Witnesses at the scene report that the women had been floating down the Okanagan River Channel and missed the stop at the bridge. The strong current from the channel, which is still running with high and fast water, carried them far out into the lake.
When they reached the women on the department’s rescue jet skis, they found the women clinging to their floats. Firefighter Wes Swaren estimates they had been in the water for about 25 minutes at that time.
“They were cold and exhausted,” he said, describing the women as being in their sixties. The women were treated for hypothermia when they were brought to show at Sudbury Beach, seating them in deck chairs and swaddling them in blankets.
Swaren wasn’t sure of the water temperature but did say it was cold, and the effect would depend on the condition of the victim.
The firefighters were assisted in the rescue by a boater who was already on the lake.
Steve Kidd Senior reporter, Penticton Western News Email me or message me on Facebook Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
