Apple’s Emergency SOS iPhone characteristic has saved the lives of 4 hikers who have been minimize off by wildfire in British Columbia.
Launched with the iPhone 14 vary, Emergency SOS by way of Satellite tv for pc has already helped rescue drivers in British Columbia, and aided first responders attending to a crash website. Now in accordance with CBC Information, the characteristic additionally saved 4 girls who have been mountaineering within the area’s West Kootenay space when a wildfire stranded them.
CBC Information does finally say that the hikers have been very well-prepared and had acquired themselves to an space the place they’d have been protected for some days. However Mark Jennings-Bates, supervisor of the Kaslo Search and Rescue staff, paints a dramatic image of the scenario and the way very troublesome circumstances grew to become.
The hikers have been camped on a glacier when the embers fell and thick smoke blocked visibility. Apple’s Emergency SOS characteristic nonetheless labored, nonetheless, and was in a position to inform the rescuers the place the hikers have been.
“We were very fortunate to get a helicopter in there, we nearly had to abandon the rescue attempt,” continued Jennings-Bates. “It’s like a war zone.”
“We were just able to sneak over a ridge [with the helicopter] and found them exactly where the cellphone ping said they were, which is really unusual and very satisfying,” mentioned Jennings-Bates. “In this instance, their cellphone literally saved their lives.”