How a garden hose saved man who fell down bank into pond

North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP officers made creative use of a garden hose to save a man from drowning in a pond this week.

Officers responded to a 911 call about 12:10 p.m. Monday after hearing the man had fallen into a drainage pond at a site on Cowichan Bay Road.

They arrived to find a large pond surrounded by a steep 4.5-metre-high mud bank. The man, a senior, had fallen in while working at the property and had become almost completely submerged in mud, with water up to his mouth.

A family member heard his calls for help and summoned emergency assistance.

A pre-existing medical condition contributed to his inability to free himself.

Police fashioned a safety line and harness out of a hose they found nearby and used it to lower an officer down the bank. The officer grabbed hold of one of the man’s arms while a group of his colleagues and a firefighter heaved the pair up the bank.

North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP Sgt. Chris Swain said officers don’t routinely carry rescue equipment with them, so they had to improvise. He said he is proud of the officers’ lifesaving efforts.

“Proud that they’re quick thinkers, quick on their feet, quick to respond,” he said.

“We were the first people there, and when you get there you quickly assess the situation, and you look around and think: ‘How am I going to get this guy out of here quickly?’

“There’s no training for this type of incident, it’s one of those things. It’s an immediate reaction.”

Pulling the man out of the water wasn’t the only concern, Swain said. “The other issue they were running into there was he had been in the water for a little while and they started worrying about hypothermia.”

Swain said the man was taken to hospital as a precaution but was uninjured.

He said police do whatever they can to resolve a situation.

“As a police officer, it makes you feel good at the end of the day if you’ve made a difference — whether it’s a difference in pulling someone out of a muddy pit or a difference in preventing violence in a domestic situation or whatever it is.

“That’s why a lot of us join the police.”