Two Halfmoon Bay Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCM-SAR) volunteers are dead after their rescue boat capsized near Egmont Sunday afternoon.
According to Dan Bate, Coast Guard communications officer, four search and rescue members were in a 733 Zodiac Hurricane when it capsized near Skookumchuck Rapids just after 11:30 a.m.
The boat had four persons on board two males and two females. It appears that the boat capsized. The two males were recovered fine with no problems. The two females that were also on board, they were reported missing, Bate said. A search was undertaken and in fact, they actually found them underneath the hull of the boat.
The incident has come as a shock to the tight-knit Halfmoon Bay RCM-SAR, formally known as the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
It's most certainly been a horrendous day for us, said Barry Poole, a Halfmoon Bay crewmate In my memory this has never happened on the Coast before. Our people are very well trained.
Bate said other local RCM-SAR units, the Powell River Coast Guard and a Department of National Defence helicopter responded to the distress call.
Bate said there is no information on how the Zodiac capsized, but RCMP and Transportation Safety Board (TSB) investigators were on the scene Sunday. The TSB may choose to conduct a formal investigation and prepare a report on the cause and contributing factors of the incident.
The largest ebb tide of the day at the rapids would have been just before 10 a.m., meaning billions of gallons of water from Sechelt Inlet were being forced out of the narrow channel and causing huge swells, according to the Sechelt Visitor Centre's Skookumchuck Rapids tidal chart.
A 13-metre tugboat capsized near the same location in July 2009.
Critical incident stress counselling will be arranged for volunteers affected by the tragedy.
A colleague of the lost volunteers posted a condolence message on RCM-SAR-Sooke's Facebook page.
Our hearts go out to their families and loved ones, it reads.
Names of the two victims have not been released.
Stay tuned to Coast Reporter on-line throughout the week for updates as they become available and to the June 8th print edition for more on this developing story.
