BC father and son honored for rescuing two men from capsized canoe

RCMP Cpl. James Moore and his 11-year-old son Emmett saved the two men from drowning in Lake Griffin near Revelstoke last summer.

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A BC father and son have been honored as heroes after they saved two men in a capsized canoe last summer while fishing on a lake near Revelstoke.

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On Labor Day long weekend, RCMP Cpl. James Moore, who was off duty at the time, and his 11-year-old son Emmett went fishing at Lake Griffin, which is located about 17 miles west of Revelstoke, off the Trans-Canada Highway. .

RCMP says that because the lake is fed by glaciers, it is clear and “intensely cold”. By mid-afternoon, the only other boat on the lake was a two-man canoe. When their boat capsized and they heard the men call for help, Moore and his son sprang into action.

Emmett had been trained by his parents in self-rescue and knew what to do, according to an RCMP news release. But they needed to row hard to catch up with the men on the other side of the lake.

Mounted police say one man was in the water and clinging to the overturned canoe and the other had partially lifted himself off the stern. Neither of them was wearing a life jacket.

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Apparently, Moore asked them if they knew how to swim and neither could.

When the canoe capsized, all the contents were scattered across the lake, according to the RCMP, so the father and son paddled to retrieve the life jackets.

Somehow, Emmett managed to put the life jackets on both men, who were cold and exhausted.

“I was concerned that the men might have hypothermia,” Moore, a 12-year member of RCMP’s Integrated Forensic Identification Services for the South Eastern District, said in a statement issued by the RCMP.

Moore said he could see the men turning pale gray.

“I’m sure it was partly due to shock and partly due to the drop in body temperature,” he said.

Moore decided to tow the canoe to the point closest to shore. He found 40 feet of rope and Emmett told the men to grab the rope, according to RCMP.

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There was no place to attach the rope on James’s smaller canoe, so the RCMP says Emmett wrapped the rope around his wrists and leaned against the side of the canoe locking his legs against the frame.

The RCMP says it took them 20 minutes to drag the men and the partially submerged canoe to shore, where Emmett jumped in and dragged the men by hand the rest of the way to land. Both men climbed out of the water and collapsed onto the jagged rock.

Moore said she couldn’t have done it without her son’s help.

“It would have been a lot of driving without me getting in the water myself. If we hadn’t been there, I’m afraid these gentlemen would have recovered.”

On May 28, the Lifesaving Society awarded Moore and her son the Silver Medal of Merit recognizing meritorious service in saving a life during a water rescue.

The Salvage Society is a nonprofit organization committed to preventing drowning and water-related injuries through water safety education.

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