A Surrey, B.C. woman is praising the brave first responders who saved her life after she crashed right beside a waterfall on the Sunshine Coast. 

Carolynne Drane, 56, was driving through Madeira Park last week when her SUV left the highway, plummeting roughly 12 metres into a swollen creek.

When the vehicle came to a rest it was flipped onto its side, sitting right in front of another massive drop. Icy water started rushing inside.

"I was strapped in my seatbelt, so as the water's rising to about my neck, I surely thought I was going to die," Drane said.

"Then I thought about my daughter, and I didn't want to leave her… I wanted to get home to her."

Trapped in her SUV, surrounded by rushing water and unsure if the current would push the vehicle further downstream was a living nightmare.

Fortunately for her, someone noticed the accident and called the RCMP, triggering a coordinated – and ultimately daring – response.

Members of the Pender Harbour Fire Department, Mounties and paramedics rushed to the scene, and quickly called firefighters from Sechelt for their specialized training in high-angle rescues.

They hatched a plan to lower firefighters down the embankment and into the middle of the fast-moving creek. Pender Deputy Fire Chief Bill Gilkes was the first to reach Drane’s SUV.

"She was hypothermic, distraught. I think she knew that there probably wasn't much more time left," Gilkes said.

Drane had been in the frigid water for hours before firefighters arrived but she was conscious, and seeing Gilkes filled her with hope.

"I'll never forget his eyes looking down at me and the warmth of his hand and the security that I felt in knowing that they risked their lives to save mine," she said.

Everyone worked as quickly as they could; first responders said it took about 15 minutes from the time the Sechelt Fire Department’s ladder truck arrived to pull Drane to safety and hand her to ambulance paramedics.

From there, she was airlifted to hospital suffering hypothermia and other injuries.

Recovering back at home in Surrey, Drane said there’s no question in her mind that the people who saved her are heroes – though Gilkes insists he was just doing his job.

“It’s nice to hear it, but I’m not,” Gilkes said. "We do what we do in situations such as this."

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Scott Hurst