It\u0027s not hard to spot members of the Sauvetage Bénévole Ottawa \u002D Ottawa Volunteer Search and Rescue. But they\u0027ll probably find you first.
The sound was unmistakable to the handful of volunteer searchers combing through the rugged bush near Low, Que. A father and son, Paul and Patrick, went missing overnight in the wilderness. Now someone was responding to the searchers’ whistles — pounding a tree with a branch, perhaps. Three signals: the universal distress call.Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Ottawa SUN, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
SBO-OVSAR’s reputation has grown to the point that municipalities will call to enlist its skills in emergency situations. The group was sandbagging in Constance Bay during the record Ottawa River flood in 2017, searching through debris in Dunrobin after the 2018 tornado, and assisting Ottawa Public Health at a mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Canadian Tire Centre.
An adventure racer, Nason joined the team to learn more about back-country navigation. He was quickly hooked by search and rescue. While search leaders set up in a mobile command trailer, volunteers ready their gear, lace up hiking boots, check GPS batteries and stuff energy bars into their pockets. Some carry radios — the area is outside cellphone coverage — while others strap red first aid kids or climbing ropes to their backpacks.
A person with dementia, meanwhile, may think they’re headed to a specific place so will often travel in a straight line, regardless of the terrain or obstacles in their path. An experienced hiker might parallel a stream or be lured into following a logging road, which may go nowhere. Someone who’s in mental distress or suicidal may be heading toward a favourite location in the woods.
Within minutes they’ve found the first hiker, “Paul”, the father. He’s been there since before sunrise, bundled against the cold but feigning a broken leg. Three days passed and hope began to fade. “It was right near a lake,” Nason said. “In the back of your mind, you’re thinking ‘He’s gone through the ice.'”
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