Swimmer drowns on Pitt Lake
A water rescue effort turned into a recovery late Sunday morning.
Emergency crews couldn’t get up Pitt Lake fast enough to help a distressed swimmer who drown near Christian Cove late Sunday morning.
Photograph by: Maple Ridge Times , file
A 45-year-old man drown Sunday morning while swimming with friends on Pitt Lake.
A party of people were swimming off the dock in Christian Cove, located about halfway up the west side of Pitt Lake.
For reasons still unknown, one of the swimmers experienced some form of “distress” while in the water, reported Mike McKinley, a spokesperson for the Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue.
Someone in the group, which McKinly believes was staying at a nearby cabin for the weekend, used a radio to call 9-1-1 at about 11 a.m.
“Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, he had already gone,” McKinley said, explaining that Mounties, paramedics, and search members from both Ridge Meadows and Coquitlam participated in the attempted rescue and eventual body recovery.
Members of the RCMP dive team were called in to help retrieve the body, which could be seen from the surface but not safely reached by others.
Pitt Lake is one of the world’s largest tidal lakes, and despite its preceived calmness, it has claimed the lives of many boaters and swimmers through the years – many never recovered.
