A 35-year-old man is now recovering from an ordeal that saw him “lost and disoriented” within the White Rock Lake wildfire zone.
Vernon Mounties said Wednesday that they’d been patrolling in the fire zone on Paxton Valley Road Aug. 28 when they came across a truck that had been abandoned after crashing into a fallen tree.
“The vehicle’s license plates were from out of province and there were no signs of anyone nearby,” Cpl. Tania Finn of the Vernon RCMP said in a press release.
They found a cellphone at the site of the crash and called the last number in the queue, and spoke to a relative of the vehicle owner who said they hadn’t heard from him in days and they were concerned.
Other RCMP officers then were involved in the search.
“Several kilometers away, near Falkland, police found the man lying in a ditch, conscious but in need of medical attention,” Finn said.
“The man explained that, after his truck became stuck, he tried to walk out but became lost and disorientated in the bush and had wandered for nearly five days before police found him.”
BC Ambulance Service attended and transported the man to the hospital.