It didn’t take long for North Shore Rescue to make use of their new state-of-the-art base.
NSR had to pause celebrations for the official opening of the Arnold Wallner SAR base at Capilano Gate near Cleveland Dam Saturday multiple times on Saturday to help people in need.
“Perhaps not unsurprisingly, the formal proceedings had to be paused to enable our helicopter rescue team to depart on a mutual aid call,” the service posted on social media Saturday evening.
Air operations coordinator John Blown says the request was from Ridge Meadows SAR.
“They had a subject with an ankle injury in a creek, and they required some assistance getting that person out,” Blown told CityNews.
“So that was a request for our hoisting to go out and hoist that subject out.”
But this wasn’t the last call of the night.
“[Ceremony proceedings] were again paused when the helicopter returned, only to immediately depart again with two of our AMP members (an emergency physician and emergency nurse, together with advanced resuscitation equipment) to assist West Van Fire and BCEHS,” NSR said.
Blown says this call was for a mountain biker experiencing traumatic cardiac arrest on Cypress Mountain.
After the ceremony, the action wasn’t over for the day, as they were then called out to assist Alberni Valley SAR with a medical rescue.
“They had a subject who was hiking on Mount Arrowsmith, fell, had a chest injury and was having trouble breathing,” Blown said. “They requested our night hoist and advanced medical capabilities for that call.”
New Arnold Wallner SAR base at Capilano Gate
NSR says this new facility is state-of-the-art and replaces the old Cap Gate SAR station.
“[The new base] provides critical space for rescue and helicopter operations in the western portion of our response area,” NSR said.
Guests at the ceremony included some from NSR’s sister team in the Bavarian Alps — the Bergwacht mountain rescue team in Oberau, Germany.
CityNews has reached out to NSR for more details about the new facility.