Girl Injured near Popular Swimming Hole
SHUNIAH – NEWS – At approximately 4:30 pm on August 27, 2018, Shuniah Fire & Emergency Services (SFES) and Pass Lake Fire Department received a request for assistance for a 17-year-old female who had been injured at the MacKenzie River north of Highway 11/17.
Fire crews set up a staging area on the North side of the highway and traveled north through the bush and found the patient and a group of young adults approximately 500 meters north of the highway. It was learned that the group traveled there to go swimming.
Superior North EMS paramedics stabilized the patient while fire crews set up extrication equipment. The patient was extricated through the dense bush to the waiting ATV under the bridge and then taken to the waiting ambulance on the highway within two hours of receiving the call.
Ten Shuniah firefighters in five units and one Pass Lake firefighter responded to the call. Ontario Provincial Police provided traffic control at the staging area. The woman was transported to the hospital but her condition is unknown.
SFES Asks Public to Be Careful
With this incident and a fatal swimming incident in the same area in 2013, SFES would like to remind the public of the dangers of traveling through and swimming in this area, and the significant resources that are required to extricate someone to safety.
