i Business .............. 42 Classified Ads..........46 Doug Collins........... 9 Comies............-.--40 Editorial Page.......... 6 Fashion..........+.... 21 Boh Hunter............ 4 Lifestyles..............37 Mailbox.......-..+--.- 7 TV Listings............44 Travel ...........+--+. 33 What's Going Gn........17 WEATHER Sunday through Tuesday, mainly sunny. Highs near 16°C. Second Class Registration Number 3885 Local survives wi NEWS photo Mike Wakefield NORTH VANCOUVER resident Ralph Davis is glad to be back in the realm of steel and girder after barely surviving a wilderness misadventure while canoeing with a friend aorth of Fort St. John. Davis is siowly nurs- ing back to health his frostbitten hands and feet. Hie lost 25 pounds during the ordeal. A NINE-year-old North Vancouver boy, who was injured when he was struck by a car while riding his bicycle, was treated to a deluxe tour Thursday of the 13th Street North Vancouver City Fire Hall by the firefighters who assisted him at the accident scene earlier this year. Alex Warner was struck June 8 at the corner of [0th Street and Moody Avenue. He was dragged for approximately 65 feet under the passenger side of the car before the driver stopped. Warner suf- fered extensive damage to his face and muscle damage to his right arm as a result. He received skin grafts to his face and chest and spent six weeks in Children’s Hospital for treat- ment. He must wear a specially- made plastic mask and a Jobst vest for at least another year to minimize scarring to his face and chest. Said mother Pat Warner: ‘‘He’s been good with it. He knows it’s something he has to do.” Firefighters Dave Howard, who coordinated the special day, and By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter Bob Schreiner, who responded to the Warner-aid call along with John Berg, picked up Alex from school in a pumper truck and whisked him off to the fire hall. En route, Alex radioed the con- trol room and got to work the siren and emergency lights. The fire hall visit included a meeting with the chiefs and inspec- tors and a tour of the facility. Alex was presented with an official, navy blue North Vancouver City Fire Department shirt, a brass nozzle-turned trophy affixed with the inscription ‘Alex Warner Fire Fighter Oct. 6, 1988’, and a 3 ~ Sunday, October 9, 1988 - North Shore News iderness ordeal CANOE TRIP NEARLY ENDS IN TRAGEDY A RETIRED North Vancouver District Fire Department firefighter narrowly survived a desperate 60-mile, five day- and-night hike through freezing northern B.C. wilderness after a river canoeing trip with a friend went wrong. North Vancouver resident Ralph Davis, 56, and Salmon Arm resi- dent Bud Price, 74, began an in- tended 220-mile canoe run down the Sikanni Chief River, just north of Fart St. John Sept. 14. The trip was to end cight days later near Fort Nelson. The pair managed to cover 35 miles during the first day out. But on the following day, after just three hours of canoeing, Davis’ canoe hit a log. The canoe capsized and in the process, the two lost the bulk of their canned and dried food supplies. They continued on with just four loaves of bread, two heads of fettuce, 1 dozen tomatoes, one head of cabbage, some sar- dines and a pack of carrots. But said Davis: ‘‘The strategy was to continue down river, but by the evening boulders blocked our way. The river was very flow.” They camped and the next day portaged one mile down river. “That took all day,"’ he said. At about 3 p.m. on the fourth day Price slipped on a rock and broke his shoulder. “After 50 miles into the trip, we couldn't go anywhere,”’ Davis said. ‘‘We camped for five days. Bud was in pain and told me on the tenth day to take a canoe and head down river for help.’? He took a can of sardines, a few slices of bread, and pushed on. ‘All that day was good. The next day, 1 was portaging a log . jam. I slipped, the canoe went under the log jam and I went under,’’ he explained. Davis lost the canoe and with it, all of his gear and bedding. ‘1 was soaking wet and all | had was what 1 had on, and a pair of jogging shoes.”” Davis stumbled on through mix- ed weather, slept in two-hour spells, fought off the cold with spruce bows, fought off a charging . moose, and ate berries while his stomach could keep them down. “{ just thought about walking. | was always hoping I would get to Fort Nelson, but 1 knew I was a long way away,” Davis said. His daughter Selma, living in Fort Nelson, initiated a search for the missing men Sept. 28. Said By MICHAEL BECKER Davis: ‘‘We had told her to give us a couple of days if it rained during the trip.”” : Two Fort Nelson search and rescue helicopters and an RCMP Beaver float plane were called out to locate the missing men. Price was rescued on Sept. 28 at the camp where Davis had left him with 12-foot SOS letters carved in the river bank. CTT Davis stumbled on through mixed weather, siept in two-hour spells, fought off the cold with spruce bows, fought off a charging moose, and ate berries while his stomach could keep them down. “A chopper went over me that same day. He came right at me,” Davis recounted. ‘‘l was up this bluff, 30-feet above the water. 1 was waving a canoe paddle with 7n orange life jacket, but he was wat- ching the beach and flying fast.” By the next morning Davis couldn’ move. “‘I’d had it. At about noon I decided to go te the beach to try to warm up. The RCMP Beaver spotted me that day and lifted me out,’’ he said. Davis lost 25 pounds during the ordeal and suffered frostbite to his hands and feet. ‘‘My shoes were worn right off when the RCMP fi- nally found me. | still feel I’ve got chunks of ice in my feet,’’ he said. He has turned his back on am- bitious canoe trips. NEWS photo Neil Lucente ALEX WARNER gets behind the wheel of 2 fire truck with new friends John Berg (left) and Bob Schreiaer (centre). rapid-fire display of eight firefighters sliding down a brass pole. The visit was capped off with chocolate cake and a visit with the rest of the crew in the lunch room. Just before he left, Alex made a last quick trip to the control room to announce over the hall's p.a. system: “This is Alex Warner. Thank you for the cake and for the tour.’ A voice came back over the control panel intercom, “You're welcome.”’ ;