A man in his early 20s is dead after a fatal cliff-jumping incident in North Vancouver on Wednesday (July 3).
Assistant chief Scott Ferguson said the District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue received a call from the district's park rangers patrolling Lynn Canyon Park, just before 5 p.m. The park rangers had a report of a swimmer in distress.
Ferguson said the the fire department dispatched a full swift-water rescue response to the Twin Falls area of Lynn Canyon. He said crews immediately started a search at the river's edge, along with an inflatable rescue boat.
"We found the patient in the water and we were able to extract them and get them to the side of the river and immediately started CPR because they were unresponsive and had no pulse."
Ferguson said the firefighters had to use a rope system to carry them up to the pathway in the trail system to two waiting ambulance crews. They then had to carry him out to the staging area of the meadows, which Ferguson said has a number of stairs.
The North Shore Rescue responded with a helicopter to transport the man out on a long line and transported to hospital.
Ferguson said the fire department is called out "quite regularly" for people who need assistance, whether it's for someone who needs help in the water or someone who injured themselves on a trail.
"They need to know the dangers of these waters before they enter them. It is moving water, or swift water, and it changes regularly and can be very strong. We want people to know the hazards before they enter them."
Ferguson said the park rangers in the area have a wealth of information and cantell people where it's safe to swim and "where it's really not safe to swim." He added cliff-jumping in the area is quite common in the summer months once the weather starts to get better.
"We definitely don't recommend cliff-jumping at all. There are signs in the canyon that talk about the dangers of cliff jumping and how extremely dangerous it is."