VANCOUVER -- Delta's police chief is praising a group of young people who had the presence of mind to call 911 when two children got mired in the mud on a beach as the tide was coming in.
It took the efforts of two firefighters and three police officers to rescue the two children, a boy and a girl around eight years old, said Delta police Chief Neil Dubord. The children had been exploring the beach at Fred Gingell Park on Saturday at low tide.
The kids had gotten about 150 metres from shore when they got stuck: the girl up to her waist, and the boy up to his knees. At around 5 p.m., a group of young people on shore noticed the pair had gotten into trouble and realized the situation was serious.
"They called 911, a very heads-up move," Dubord said.
The girl had gotten very cold by the time first responders got out to the beach and couldn't move her legs or get herself out of the mud, Dubord said. So the two firefighters held her up to prevent her from sinking any further, while the police officers dug her out.
The firefighters and police officers were then able to carry the children to a waiting ambulance, where paramedics checked them before releasing them. Neither child was injured, Dubord said.
As spring approaches, the tide goes farther and farther out, Dubord said, and it's fairly common for people to get stuck in the mud on that part of Metro Vancouver's shoreline.
"We do see people get stuck in the mud," Dubord said. "But typically not this bad where people need to be pulled out."
