On June 16, I and my friend Nancy Ball, formerly from the Yukon on a visit from Ontario, set out to enjoy a pleasant journey around the Golden Circle.
Travelling merrily along and admiring the wonders of the Yukon, we talked about the beauty of the country and the wonderful folks that are a part of that. The sun lit the mountains and all was aglow.
The trip came to an abrupt halt when we noticed smoke coming from underneath the RV we were travelling in. Stopping to investigate, we realized we indeed were more aglow than we recognized, we were on fire.
Instinctively I grabbed the fire extinguisher and within moments a brave gentleman ran to assist, followed shortly by several others.
We would like to acknowledge and are extremely grateful for those that had no hesitation with jumping into the fire to help us with our frightening experience. We extend an immense thank you to the following folks.
James was the first brave gentleman on the scene, travelling with his family en route to his homeland in the United States who, without hesitation, grabbed the fire extinguisher and jumped right in to extinguish the flames. A genuine trooper and saviour through the whole ordeal, James stuck with us to ensure we were safe and sound before leaving the scene.
Glenn Iceton had just finished the gruelling task of completing half of the road relay as part of a two-member team, yet stuck by our side and gave one of us a ride to the Blanchard highway maintenance camp.
Ray Marnoch and his travelling companions provided a second fire extinguisher to contain the still-smouldering embers and the other ride to Blanchard Camp.
Glenn Smith at Blanchard Camp helped contact the folks who came to retrieve us. Bill and Karla Horsey from Haines Junction drove all the way to pick us up from where we were stranded at Stanley Creek.
The brave folks from Capital Towing rescued the RV, which was closely guarded by a huge grizzly bear. And my husband Greg and good friend Stephen Casey met us at the Junction to complete the final leg of our safe journey home to Whitehorse.
We extend our sincere gratitude to all the many others for stopping to lend a hand. The support and comfort from perfect strangers who were willing to risk their lives to assist us was overwhelming.
While our adventure was not quite what we had intended, we are very grateful that it ended without tragedy.
We feel that’s because of quick actions by all those Good Samaritans whom we were blessed to encounter. We can certainly say it was an exciting adventure that can go down in our Yukon book of memories.
Thank you, Good Samaritans who live and travel in the Yukon and continue to make it a glorious place to be.
Nancy Irvine
Whitehorse