A Saskatchewan couple swept over a B.C. cliff in a mudslide is alive thanks to the quick actions of a volunteer firefighter.
Weyburn resident Sheri Niemegeers said she and her boyfriend, Gabe Rosescu of Regina, were driving to Nelson, B.C. on May 17 when they were caught in a massive mudslide.
The slide along Highway 3 contained boulders the size of pickup trucks.
WATCH: Mudslide in the Kootenay Pass
“We were driving down the road and we were pretty excited because we weren’t far from where our destination was. And all of a sudden we both were like, holy heck, there’s a tree. And then bang, that’s the last thing I remember,” she said.
Don Struthers, Rosescu’s brother-in-law, says they knew something was wrong when the couple stopped sending them updates about their trip.
Hours went by before Struthers heard the couple had been found by the passing firefighter.
“All we knew at that time is that they were still alive and one was in an ambulance heading to the hospital and the other was in a helicopter heading to the hospital,” Struthers said.
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Rosescu was badly hurt and had to be airlifted to hospital in Kelowna.
He says the swelling has now started to go down but the big concern is the nasal area due to broken bones in the cavity and doctors are working to save his left eye and reduce the swelling in his brain.
“The risk of blindness and paralysis is a high-risk thing.”
Struthers says doctors might start operating later Tuesday or early Wednesday.
“They need to assemble his orbital area to get his left eye in a normal spot at least, it’s all sunken down right now.”
Both Niemegeers and Rosescu are conscious. Struthers said they do not remember much about the accident.
“They were just driving along, nothing out of the ordinary, when suddenly, boom, a tree is right in front of them out of nowhere, they didn’t have time to stop, and then a wall of mud must have been pushing them from the side.”
They say they don’t remember much after that.
Struthers said the volunteer firefighter has now been dubbed “a family hero.”
He only knew someone was buried in the slide because he could hear Rosescu screaming.
“He was wading through mud which in places was seven metres high. He was up to his armpits in mud,” he said.
The firefighter has since connected with Niemegeers on Facebook.
“We are extremely fortunate that somebody like him came across this,” added Struthers.
But he was not the only one on scene that day helping out.
Dan Anderson and a passerby named Kyle also stopped to help, jumping in to save Niemegeers and Rosescu’s lives. Anderson has written about it in a Facebook post.
“There were many factors that day that placed me in Creston briefly and then out on the highway next to the slide. Something compelled me to walk up to the site where I heard the faint crys for help, several cars had already turned around to go back to Creston,” writes Anderson.
Struthers says Niemegeers is “doing OK” considering.
There is concern about nerve damage in her foot and she is still in terrible pain.
He has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for rescue costs and help the couple get back on their feet. They don’t know how much everything is going to cost at this point.
Any remaining funds will be given to rescue associations in B.C. to thank them for their hard work and effort.
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