As wildfires ravage the Kootenay region, Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite feature played a critical role in the rescue of four women stranded on a glacier in B.C.’s West Kootenay area.
Last week, a search and rescue team navigated thick smoke and flames to locate the hikers stuck on the Macbeth Ice Fields, northeast of Kaslo, approximately 390 kilometres east of Kelowna. The women, all B.C. residents, had been camping when winds intensified, causing embers to fall on their tent.
“Embers were falling on their tent so they ran for their lives,” said Mark Jennings-Bates, Kaslo Search and Rescue manager, who led the operation, according to CBC News.
The hikers managed to send a text via satellite using Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite iPhone function, enabling the rescue team to pinpoint their exact location.
“We were just able to sneak over a ridge and found them exactly where the cellphone ping said they were,” Jennings-Bates stated. “In this instance, their cellphone literally saved their lives.”
Laurence Desjardins, one of the rescued women, described the harrowing conditions. “It was nighttime, so we thought, let’s wait to have a bit of sun and then we will reassess and leave,” she said. “But the sun never came. Even at 5:45 a.m., it was super dark because of the smoke. And the ashes were now red.”
“The real heroes of this story are the search-and-rescue team. These guys are doing this unpaid, on their time … and they were just incredible,” said Desjardins.
The women were cleared to enter their hike but hours after, the road closed. As they were being flown out, they could see fire had engulfed the trees around the trail where they had hiked in on.
In a testament to their preparedness, the hikers had reached a safe area at the glacier’s toe, surrounded by rocks and near an alpine lake. “They would have been safe for a few days, frankly, and they were very well prepared,” Jennings-Bates concluded.
Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite feature works on an iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15, or iPhone 15 Pro, running iOS 16.1 or later, for those in Canada. It allows these iPhones to connect to satellites and text with rescue teams, on top of notifying your contacts.
Time and time again, we’re hearing how this feature is helping to rescue people when they are outside of cellular coverage. An alternative for those with older iPhones is to bring a satellite communicator such as a Garmin inReach Mini 2 when hiking in areas without cellular reception.
When iOS 18 launches this fall, Emergency SOS Live Video will debut, allowing the ability for supported iPhone users to live stream video with 911 dispatchers.
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