Scene Safety

Allright, this one happened to the next station south, but it’s way too good a story to pass up. A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine was dispatched to an MVA near Fort St. John. A pickup towing a trailer through heavy fog had missed the stop sign at a rural intersection with the Alaska Highway, sailing right through and colliding with a gravel truck. When the crew arrived, the scene was a mess, and detailed information scanty, so they quickly checked the trailer for dangerous contents. Finding it empty, they got to work. Details of the accident began to emerge, and the nature of the trailer finally filtered down to the crew: it was a tiger trailer, only recently empty. Meanwhile, a disconcerted farmer was watching the goings-on from a nearby horse pasture. Confident that he didn’t own any stripy, whiskered horses, he pulled his truck around the field to get a better view. Far from being a threat, the tiger found the countryside charmingly reminiscent of his native Siberia, and contented himself with pouncing and rolling in the grass. Curious about the possibility of a truck ride, he walked up to the farmer and waited to be let in. The tiger’s owner, who had arrived shortly after the accident, suggested putting the cat in his car, but conservation officers and RCMP voted against. Kitty eventually got his truck ride, but it was in a humane bear trap, and he must have spent it praying patiently for another gravel truck.