Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part one, with part two scheduled to appear in Sunday’s Tribune.
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McCALL — Two children are safe after they were accidentally buried in a snow cave for about 20 minutes by a snowplow hired to clear the family’s driveway last week.
The siblings, Oliver, 5, and Amelia, 7, were playing on a roughly 15-foot-tall snow pile near their home on Alpine Street in McCall on the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 2.
Their father, Rodrigo Vergara Bosse, was keeping an eye on them from his home as they played on the snow pile outside.
The plow had already come by that day and the family assumed the pile was safe to play on, but with storms in the forecast, the driver had headed out a second time to remove more snow than usual to get ahead of the expected snowfall.
Vergara Bosse did not see the plow come by a second time, but realized the children were no longer visible, and that the snow pile looked different.
After checking the pile outside, his wife Maureen Tacke saw no evidence of the snow cave the children had been building, and they were nowhere to be seen, Tacke recalled.
The siblings had been completely buried in their snow cave. The structure offered them a small air bubble, where they survived until rescue arrived.
Not sure where to dig, Vergara Bosse enlisted his neighbor Gary Thompson to help, knowing that Thompson is a backcountry ski guide with avalanche rescue training and that his two children and their friends had also played on the same pile recently — they would know exactly where to look.
“I jumped up and said, ‘hey, grab your shovels, let’s go,’ ” Thompson recalled as he joined the rescue effort with the group of children assisting.
The horrifying realization that the two children were buried in the snow pile hit everyone in stages, with increasing urgency to dig them out.
They began tunneling into the pile from the side where they suspected the snow cave and a small series of tunnels might be, while Tacke called 911.
After about four minutes of furious digging, a tunnel opened up, first revealing Amelia, conscious and talkative, but bracing the walls of the tunnel. She relayed that her brother Oliver was conscious as well, but further down the tunnel.
When McCall Fire & EMS and McCall Police arrived, Thompson, exhausted, handed over the excavation to a team of firefighters.
Digging through compacted snow is “like moving concrete,” Thompson said.
McCall Fire arrived with five firefighters from the station, two police officers and five off-duty firefighters who received the call, said Fire Chief Garrett de Jong.
“Our crew jumped in and dug and one of our firefighters climbed into the tunnel and was able to pull the kids out one by one,” de Jong said.
“It was an emotional call for everyone that was there, and they were so excited to find the kids conscious and uninjured,” he said.
It just so happened that the crew of firefighters had practiced avalanche rescue training the day before, so they were ready to go, de Jong said.
Reflecting on the “freak accident,” Tacke said it was a big learning experience, and something the family does not hold against the snowplow driver.
“The snowplow driver had no idea there were kids there,” she said.
The next day, Tacke and Vergara Bosse brought their children to the Ignite Idaho Family Resource Center at 106 E. Park St. in McCall to discuss the incident with a therapist and evaluate the traumatic event.
They recommended that anyone experiencing a similarly distressing incident seek out a crisis counselor “immediately.”
Ignite Idaho provides behavioral health services, programs for children, parenting support and other resources.
Following the incident McCall Fire and City of McCall officials began a public information campaign to avoid a similar situation in the future.
Officials told parents to assume plows can come at any time, to keep an eye on play areas, talk about safe zones and be a safety backup. Children should avoid danger zones, buddy up for safety, stay bright and visible and check in with adults.
— Max Silverson, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
‘Wasn’t that bad;’ four take icy Lochsa plunge
LOWELL — An enthused, determined group took the icy plunge in the Lochsa River on Jan. 1 to celebrate the new year. Temperatures were in the mid-30s at Three Rivers Resort where — with fresh snow covering the bank — three adults and one child took a walk into the brisk current for a sit-down and body plunge into the chilly current.
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be,” said Kamiah area resident Mike Bolton, “except for my feet. I thought it would be colder on the upper body, but my feet are still trying to warm up,” he smiled.
This is his first time anywhere doing a New Year’s Day polar bear plunge, he said, motivated to attend after seeing photos of this event in the newspaper last year.
“So, it was to satisfy curiosity,” he said, “and I thought, ‘I don’t do anything else on New Year’s Day, so I might as well come out and try it.’ ”
“The feet was what surprised me,” Bolton said, “but it wasn’t that bad. I might do it again.”
This is the second annual icy plunge in the Lochsa, sponsored by the resort, an opportunity to do something fun and provide a celebration, according to managers Jeremy (who was one of the four plungers) and Shannon Severn.
“This year has been a little quieter, but that’s OK,” Shannon said on attendance, down from about 35 last year, which they attributed to the recent snowy weather and the event hitting mid-week. As well, last year, their cabins were mostly full, “and those folks came out to watch, but it was a lot of the locals who came out to get in the river.”
For the Severns, this provides a fun event to start off the year, which is not being done as a public event anywhere else in the county.
“And the Lowell QRU comes out,” Shannon said, volunteering their time with three EMTs to assist if someone gets hurt or suffers a health emergency.
All participants exited wet and colder up the riverbank, after which the resort provided a lunch.
— David Rauzi, Idaho County Free Press (Grangeville), Wednesday
