Multiple resources responded to Saturday night's incident of a person falling from a cliff at Pipers Lagoon Park. (Nanaimo Emergency Photography)

By Ian Holmes

serious injuries

Fall leads to critical injury at Nanaimo’s Pipers Lagoon Park

Jul 29, 2024 | 5:29 PM

NANAIMO — Several resources and Good Samaritans worked together in response to a seriously injured person who fell 10 meters from a steep rock face in Nanaimo’s north end.

Nanaimo Fire Rescue (NFR) received a call for help on Saturday, July 27 at 7 p.m. when somebody fell at the park’s eastern edge near the end of the extended pathway at Pipers Lagoon Park.

“We were met with a patient who was unconscious, but breathing, had significant injuries from the fall. The patient was in critical condition,” NFR assistant chief David Dales told NanaimoNewsNOW.

As opposed to a more technical vertical patient retrieval, crews elected to place the injured adult on a stretcher board with crews then walking the injured subject through shallow water to the parking lot.

“We always have firefighters on shift who have the added skill sets for the vertical environment. Really what goes down to these calls is we need to figure out where the patient is and gain patient access rather quickly,” Dales said.

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Crews brought the injured subject to a waiting ambulance in the shallow waters along the beach at Pipers Lagoon Park. (Nanaimo Emergency Photography)

While a landing zone was created and an air ambulance arrived at the park, Dales said BC Emergency Health Services elected for the patient to be taken to hospital via ground ambulance.

He said members of the public were of great assistance, which didn’t go unnoticed.

“We had some amazing people on scene who were able to meet us at the parking lot in a very calm demeanour, they led us to the patient where they knew they had fallen. We had a lot of people who were very helpful getting their vehicles out of the way.”

Dales also credited their mutual aid partners for their prompt responses, including local volunteer-run Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue personnel.

The fall occurred in the same area where NFR crews responded to a recent large brush fire.

NFR responds to an estimated two to three severe incidents a year involving falls, Dales noted.

He said their crews train at the location of the Pipers Lagoon incident twice a year.

“The data shows that we have to train there for that call,” he said.

In April 2022 a man was severely injured after falling nearly 20 meters at Pipers Lagoon Park.

An air ambulance was called to Pipers Lagoon Park on Saturday, July 27 for a person injured in a fall. (Nanaimo Emergency Photography)

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Ian.holmes@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes