Sikh hikers use their turbans to make a rope and save two men caught in waterfall pool
[Oct 20, 2021: Joshua Rhett Miller]
A group of hikers in Canada used their turbans to rescue two men who fell into frigid waters below a raging waterfall, intense video shows.
The footage shows Kuljinder Kinda and four friends using the innovative rescue technique on Oct. 11 to save two men who slipped on rocks and fell into a pool above the lower falls at Golden Ears Provincial Park in British Columbia.
Kinda told NBC News another group in the park had told them the two men couldn’t get themselves out of the fast-moving water and asked them to call for help, but they didn’t have cellphone service.
So the group of Sikhs took off their turbans and other pieces of clothing to make a 33-foot makeshift rope to save the men, Kinda recalled.
“We were trying to think how we could get them out, but we didn’t know how to,” said Kinda, an electrician originally from Punjab, India. “So we walked for about 10 minutes to find help and then came up with them idea to tie our turbans together.”
Video shows one fallen hiker grabbing the makeshift rope just above the raging water.
“Hold it tightly, don’t let go,” one rescuer said.
“Come, come, don’t worry about your knees,” one rescuer told the hiker. “Keep coming … Keep holding the turbans!”
The two hikers thanked Kinda and his friends for springing into action and their quick thinking. The hikers have not been publicly identified.
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“In Sikhi, we are taught to help someone in any way we can with anything we have, even our turban,” Kinda said, adding that he was afraid for his own life during the rescue. “We just really cared about the safety of the men.”
Robert Laing, search and rescue manager for Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue, said he responded to the scene but the hikers were already out of the water by the time he arrived.
“We spoke briefly with them but only to make sure they were fine and did not require medical aid,” Laing told NBC News. “They did say that they did not see the warning signs regarding the hazards of approaching the falls.”
The waterfalls are located behind a fenced area, Laing said.
“Several people are injured each year as a result of slips or falls,” Laing continued. “It seems about once every one to two years, someone will be swept over the falls and die as a result of their injuries.”
Laing told the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News the two men who fell into the water appeared to be in their 20s and were lucky to come out unscathed.
“The rocks there are quite slick and it can be really difficult to get back out of it, especially if you are wet and cold,” Laing told the newspaper. “So, they were fortunate that these five young men happened by and were able to get him out and back up to the trail.”
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