Image: Derrick Kramer, used with permission / In this image shared by Chilliwack River Valley resident Derrick Kramer, a BC helicopter prepares to lift off Saturday near Lindeman Lake after a reported drowning occurred. Emergency personnel from Chilliwack River Valley Fire Department, Chilliwack RCMP, Chilliwack Search and Rescue, and BC EHS were dispatched Saturday, Aug. 11 after 2 p.m. An individual reportedly drowned and did not survive, according to a witness who attended the scene where first responders converged. 

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Reported drowning at Lindeman Lake

Chilliwack first responders dispatched to reported drowning at Lindeman Lake Saturday

Aug 12, 2023 | 8:26 PM

CHILLIWACK — A multitude of Chilliwack first responders and emergency personnel were dispatched to Lindeman Lake in the Chilliwack River Valley Saturday afternoon (August 12) for a drowning incident that reportedly resulted in a fatality.

According to witness Derrick Kramer, personnel from the Chilliwack River Valley Fire Department, Chilliwack Search and Rescue, Chilliwack RCMP, and BC Emergency Health Services responded to the Lindeman Lake parking lot in response to a reported drowning at the lake, located nearly 40 kilometres east of the Vedder Bridge.

The incident unfolded sometime after 2 p.m. Two helicopters were deployed to the scene.

One of the helicopters touched down in a landing zone established in a fire break area of Post Creek, a subdivision of 83 cabins including 39 full-time, year-round residents, about one kilometre west of Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park.

Derrick Kramer, a resident of the Chilliwack River Valley who lives close to where emergency personnel staged Saturday afternoon, says he was coming home and driving eastbound on Chilliwack Lake Road when he saw an ambulance trailing him.

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“I stayed ahead of the ambulance on the way up the road as I was coming home,” Kramer said. “I pulled over at my street as he went by, so I followed him up to Lindeman parking lot. I saw two ambulances and one fire truck at that point. I went back home and started working on my boat. I heard more sirens, so I jumped in my truck and drove up to the fire break on Chilliwack Lake Road to talk to search and rescue for about 15 minutes. As we were talking, a BC ambulance service helicopter landed in the fire break in Post Creek community. They proceeded to tell me that there was another helicopter on the way for extraction. I went over to the B.C. helicopter and hung out there talking to them, and then found out it was a recovery.”

Fraser Valley Today has reached out to the BC Coroners Service for information on Saturday’s incident that possibly resulted in a fatality.