After getting his SUV stuck, a lost offroader decided to light a forest fire to signal rescuers.
The cellphone call to police was more effective.
On Wednesday night, two men and a woman got stuck while offroading in an SUV west of the Lobird subdivision.
The trio decided to split up.
At 7:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, police received a cellphone call from the female offroader.
RCMP officers and dogs soon found the three persons; each in a different area.
One of the males had lit a bonfire next to power pole.
The fire was “half a kilometre” from the nearest road, said Whitehorse fire Chief Clive Sparks.
“Alcohol may have been a factor in this case,” said an RCMP news release.
The police called it a “small fire.”
“If the fire had been later in the day with a bit of wind, it might have been a very different scenario,” said wildland fire management officials.
Firefighters were called in early, and within an hour of first sighting, an airtanker was dispatched to douse the fire with retardant.
By Thursday afternoon, city and forest firefighters were still working to “extinguish the fire from the ground.”
It isn’t “recommended,” to signal your presence with a forest fire, said Maratos.
In June 2008, a brushfire was lit in the Grey Mountain area by a lost 16-year-old girl.
The night before, four people had become stranded after their pickup became stuck.
Two followed a road back into town and two decided to hike through the wilderness, where they became lost.
In a last-ditch effort, the girl lit a fire, which quickly spread out of control.
When tankers came to extinguish it, she was found. (Tristin Hopper)