A fire chief in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley says two people were taken to hospital after a boat sank in the Annapolis River on Monday.
Annapolis Royal Volunteer Fire Department Chief Andrew Cranton said they were called to an area about four kilometres east of the Annapolis causeway in Granville Centre at around 5:30 p.m.
Cranton said four people were on the boat when something went wrong and it sank.
“We’re not sure what happened. All we know is that they were out for more or less like a pleasure cruise on the river at that time of the evening and something catastrophic happened with the boat and it immediately sunk,” said Cranton in an interview Tuesday morning.
When fire crews arrived, two people were found on the shore but two others were missing, he said.
“The first two were very hypothermic and information was not at a premium at that time. It was fight mode to survive because of the cold water they had just been in,” said Cranton.
“We couldn’t get any kind of information of how many people exactly were in the boat. So it’s a hindrance for us because we would like to know what we’re looking for. But under the circumstances, it’s difficult.”
Search for missing boaters
A search was launched that included zodiac boats, a helicopter, a number of local volunteer fire departments, RCMP and Valley search and rescue crews, Cranton said.
The third boater was found about an hour later, and the fourth was found around 11:30 p.m. Monday. Both were taken to hospital, Cranton said. He wasn’t sure of their condition on Tuesday morning.
“It’s not something that you see every day on the Annapolis River. So yeah, there was a lot of concern from the community going on, especially with the missing boaters,” he said.
The river begins near the community of Aylesford and flows southwest for roughly 120 kilometres to its mouth near Clementsport, where it empties into the Annapolis Basin.
It runs through the historic small town of Annapolis Royal and is popular among boaters and kayakers.
