First responders jumped into action over the weekend to rescue a woman in labour trying to cross the Canada-United States border to seek asylum.
A medical first responder with Emerson-Franklin Emergency Services tells CTV News the call came in around 5 a.m. Saturday.
“There was a woman in distress, she was stuck in the snow,” said Dave Carlson, reeve of the R.M. of Emerson-Franklin.
“I believe she was along a rail bed, and she was stuck in the snow, and it took ‘em a bit, but they found her,” he said.
Four responders went to help the woman, who was on her own and stuck in some snow.
“She made the call herself, she called 911,” Carlson said, adding the woman had a cellphone. “And fortunately it worked, because we often don’t have the best cell service where we are.”
“If her phone hadn’t worked, who knows what would’ve happened. It might’ve been a real tragedy.”
The members of the local fire department were able to help the woman get into a warm vehicle until an ambulance arrived.
Chief of Emerson Fire Department, Jeff French, said the woman was transported to the nearest hospital, but her condition at this time is not known.
Carlson said the incident underscores how dangerous the practice of irregular border crossing can be.
“We’ve had a ton of snow. The snow’s deep in a lot of areas, especially with all the drifting we’ve had, we’ve had a lot of windy days. The snow’s heavy, it’s quite easy to get stuck, and get into a bad situation. And sure enough, she did,” he said.
“Even for people that know the area, and these are people that don’t know the area at all.”
Carlson said while most asylum seekers are intercepted by the RCMP without the R.M. becoming involved, it does appear that fewer are crossing the border than did during an influx in the winter of 2017.
“It’s more like in ones and twos, than it was in large groups like it had been, but it is still happening,” he said.
“Luckily our personnel was on the scene, and hats off to them for what they did.”
