Rescue crews save eaglets trapped by Kamloops wildfire

Dave Somerton is breathing a sigh of relief after crews saved two eaglets stuck in their nestduring awildfire that threatened his own home.

Somerton lives inSage Meadows Modular Home Parkin Kamloops, B.C.,which was under an evacuation alert Friday due to a wildfire north of East ShuswapRoad.

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The fire also threatened the nest of awell loved pair of bald eagles, whosetwo eaglets are still too young to fly.

Residents at Sage Meadows have watched the parentscome back annually to the same tree, located about half a kilometre fromSomerton'sbackyard, to have their babies and teach them to fly.

"It's interesting that everybody in the park was more concerned about saving the eagles than they were about their own homes," saidSomerton.

"The eagles have become kind of community pets."

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Rescue effort

When KamloopsFire Rescue and the B.C. Wildfire Servicelearned of the trapped eaglets, they rallied to protectthem.

Capt. Daryl Cooper with KamloopsFire Rescuesaid crews initially tried to douse the scorched tree from above by helicopter, but could not get close enough without harming the young birds.

Eventually, crews fighting the blaze from the ground were able to save both the birds and the tree.

• WATCH: fire crews working to save tree where eaglets trapped.

Mission accomplished

Somertonsaid the eagle rescue showed an amazing cooperative effort by local and provincial fire crews.

"It was pretty obvious that these guys knew what the heck they were doing," said Somerton. "I think they were as emotionally involved as everyone else was."

Cooper saidcrews are planning to check in on the eagles on Monday, but as far as he knows they are thriving.

"In this case, we got a win," he said.

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The wildfire grew to more than 500 hectares but is now under control and is not expected to grow further.

No homes in the park were damaged by the fire.

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