The skies were clear on Monday morning when Sage Randle and her two friends set out to hike Mt. Bruce in southeastern B.C.
Relieved she had a cell signal, Randle called local search and rescue, but worried they could not come fast enough to get her and her friends away from the fire, which was quickly moving up the mountain. Flowitt, who was born and raised in Invermere and knows the area well, flew past the parking lot and saw a single vehicle. He knew which trail the hikers would have been on, and found them on the summit of Mt. Bruce.
“It felt nice having them above us, knowing we had a way out if the fire did spread quicker than we were hoping it would,” Randle said, adding she isn’t sure what her group would have done if the helicopter didn’t save them from the summit. “I have reached out to them on Instagram and we will be bringing them beer and chocolate and treats, because we owe them our lives. I am so thankful to those guys. They literally came out of nowhere and saved us,“ said Randle.