High-angle rescue taxes firefighters
The arrival of warm weather typically means high-angle rescues at Decew Falls Gorge.
St. Catharines Fire and Emergency Services was on the job in the dark Wednesday night with a high-angle rescue team successfully pulling lost hikers to safety, said Deputy Chief Dave Upper.
“No question, a rescue at night slows down the entire operation,” Upper said. “When lighting is an issue, everything slows down. We bring our lighting capability, but it is nowhere near as good as what we have on the truck.”
A long line of St. Catharines fire chiefs have warned the public to stay on the trail at the gorge and make sure they have proper footwear. A high-angle rescue can take hours to perform and strain resources if there is another emergency.
While the fire department is equipped to handle multiple emergencies, the cost to taxpayers mount if a wave of firefighters is recalled on overtime.
That didn’t happen Wednesday night, Upper said, but for a few nervous minutes it looked like it just might.
“The call to the gorge came in at 9:47 p.m., and we had our equipment tied up at Decew,” Upper said.
“At 10:07 p.m., we received a call about a pot on a stove and the room and contents on fire at Leaside Apartments. So while we are rescuing folks that have come off the trail, we have a report of a working kitchen fire in a highrise, and with a pot on the stove, it can go either way.”
Upper said one reason people leave the trail and go deep into the gorge is to swim.
“With the sun setting, it gets dark quickly when they are deep in the gorge. All of a sudden, they are in total darkness, they don’t have a flashlight and they are caught.
“The other thing that catches people when they are deep in the gorge is a change in the weather. A storm front moves in, and if the rain comes in hard, it makes climbing out of the gorge almost impossible.”
Upper said it is possible to walk out, but it is arduous.
“It is not as easy as it sounds,” he said. “There is no trail down there at all. You are walking over rocks. Last night, one of the gentlemen was in flip-flops.”
The city has looked at building a set of stairs into the gorge, but the roadblocks are substantial.
The first is legal liability. The second is cost. The bottom of the gorge near the big falls is more than 20 metres deep. Building a safe set of stairs to the bottom of the gorge would be expensive.
With stairs leading hikers into the gorge, the city would have to build a trail through the rocks. It would also be on the hook to maintain it.