Canadian Firefighter Thinks Valentine's Day Chocolates Helped Save Woman In Icy River

NELSON, B.C. (CP) -- A firefighter credits a heart-shaped box of chocolates with helping to save the life of a woman who spent nearly two hours trapped in freezing water after her SUV flipped into the Kootenay River early on Valentine's Day.

Rescue officials said Wednesday the woman was lucky to be found because the vehicle left only a faint set of tire tracks in the snow leading off an icy road to the river.

The woman from Pass Creek, whose name has not been released, was found by her boyfriend. He went looking for her when she didn't show up for work early Monday morning after being called in unexpectedly.

"The first stroke of luck was that he even found the tire tracks in the snow,'' said Simon Grypma, assistant chief of Nelson Fire and Rescue. ``They were so faint, you could barely see them.''

The boyfriend called emergency services at 2:50 a.m. after finding the vehicle upside down in about 1.5 metres of water, nine metres down a bank, said Grypma. The SUV had punched a hole through a sheet of ice.

A dozen emergency personnel were on the scene within minutes, including a swift water rescue team from Beasley Fire and Rescue.

"We had to break through the ice to get to the vehicle,'' said Al Craft, the Beasley fire chief. ``We tried all the doors, popped the window, we couldn't open anything.''

It wasn't until a tow truck pulled the vehicle over to one side that Craft was able to see the woman.

"She was stuck between the two seats with her head in front of the backseat,'' he added. ``She was breathing out of an air space near the foot well.''

Grypma said the woman found a plastic container of chocolates given to her by her family for Valentine's Day floating in the vehicle.

"She started to eat them,'' said Grypma, ``which I think helped.''

The small amount of energy the woman's body created by digesting the chocolate likely helped raise her temperature slightly, he added.

Hypothermia sets in when core body temperature starts to drop below 35 degrees C. If body temperature falls under 32 C, the condition can become critical and eventually fatal.

Grypma said the woman's body temperature dipped to 30 C.

In his 27 years as a firefighter, Grypma said he has never seen anything like this rescue.

"It was an extremely dangerous rescue because we didn't know how much air space the woman had,'' he said. "If we disturbed the vehicle, she might have lost that air space.''

Rescue workers were eventually able to pull the woman through a window. She was taken to hospital for treatment of hypothermia and discharged later on Monday.

"This woman's courage was incredible,'' said Grypma. "For her to hold herself together, with her thoughts and her actions, to save herself. She said she was praying to God her boyfriend would come and find her.''