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SAR group kept busy

Sunday was a busy day for Nanaimo Search and Rescue volunteers.

Sunday was a busy day for Nanaimo Search and Rescue volunteers, who responded to three call-outs during the day.

Allen Tonn, chief of operations, said the first call came in around 11 a.m.

Some people had spotted a young adult walking on the side of Holden Corso Road in Cedar who appeared despondent and called police, who called for help from search and rescue volunteers, he said.

"People got the impression that he was potentially going to cause harm to himself," said Tonn.

He said volunteers from the Nanaimo, Ladysmith and Cowichan search and rescue groups were called out and firefighters from North Cedar Fire Department and Nanaimo Fire Rescue also joined in the search.

The firefighters handled the search on the road while search and rescue volunteers combed the trails and bush.

Tonn said volunteers were able to identify the male after a witness with some information came forward and members managed to contact him through his family around 2 p.m. that day.

"He'd made a call for help and been picked up by his family," he said. "It was a good outcome."

Just as the crews were cleaning up from that call, they were called to assist paramedics with a dirt biker injured in the Doumont trail system at the end of Weigles Road.

Tonn said the man, who ended up getting carried out to the road by a passing ATV rider, was in the ambulance when volunteers arrived.

On their way back from that call, volunteers were flagged down by another group of motorcyclists.

A teenage male on a dirt bike had collided with another dirt bike and received lacerations to his knee, as well as damage to his knee cap, said Tonn, and search and rescue volunteers provided first aid until the ambulance carrying the other injured man made its way down the hill and picked him up.

"For our search and rescue team, it is unusual to have that many calls in that short a period of time," he said.

Tonn said Nanaimo Search and Rescue had entered a team in the Snow to Surf Adventure Relay Race in the Comox Valley area that day, so to get almost a dozen local volunteers out on the search was good.

"We had a good turnout for who was in town," he said. "We definitely had who we needed."