Photo: File photo

Kal Beach in Coldstream.

It was a close call for two anglers after their small fishing boat capsized on Kal Lake Saturday, dumping them into the frigid water.

Coldstream Fire Chief Fiona Morgenthaler-Code said the call came in at 12:30 p.m., with the Coldstream Fire Department, Vernon Search and Rescue, BC Ambulance, and RCMP responding to the scene.

Morgenthaler-Code said the two men were about 300 meters from shore near Kal Beach when the incident occurred.

Neither man was wearing a life jacket, but one man managed to swim to shore while the other clung to the capsized boat.

“RCMP did manage to make contact with the person who was clinging to the boat, and he was unable to swim in on his own,” Morgenthaler-Code said.

A Good Samaritan with a boat then offered to help and took a member of the Coldstream Fire Department to the capsized boat, rescuing the man.

“He got him into the boat and brought him to Kal Beach, where he was handed off to BC Ambulance for transport to the hospital,” Morgenthaler-Code said, adding the man was awake but “pretty hypothermic.”

“It really could have gone bad. A big thank you to the Good Samaritan who offered us his boat to assist in the rescue before Vernon Search and Rescue arrived.”

Morgenthaler-Code reminds anyone heading onto area lakes to wear a life jacket.