17-year-old falls to his death at Lynn Canyon Park in North Vancouver

Another person has died at Lynn Canyon on Vancouver’s North Shore.

Sources told Global News that a 17-year-old boy ignored signs and climbed past a broken fence Sunday before losing his footing and falling about 150 feet into the canyon.

Originally from Ontario, the teen was expected to start classes at the University of British Columbia next week.

The coroner confirms an investigation is underway into the death of the young man.

Dwayne Derban, assistant chief of operations at the District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue, said the call came in at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

“We go there quite often,” he said. “It’s quite a common area.”

Derban said the call came in through B.C. Ambulance and they weren’t sure what they were heading toward.

“Our first-on-the-scene crew, Engine 1, from the fire hall got there and they heard that it was across the suspension bridge on the west side of the river,” he said.

“So they started that way, downstream, where the friends of the patient were off the track and behind the hill. So they had to kind of follow and do a little bit of search, to find the friends and then to locate their a friend who had fallen over the cliff.”

Derban said there was a delay before the teen’s friends called 911 because they thought he was OK.

“He just disappeared over an edge,” he said.

Derban said they couldn’t see the boy who had fallen over the cliff until a crew member was able to get on the opposite side of the river.

“At that point in time, we knew where he was, and we could set up a lowering system to get our rescuer down there,” he added.

Derban said there were four people in the group and they were off-trail.

“There is lots of fencing showing where you should be, where you shouldn’t be,” he said.

“So this one young lad, took it in his mind to get closer to the edge, to get some some pictures. And in the end, it was a bad decision.”

Derban said the teen’s friends told them he had gone over the fence and close to the edge when the ground gave way.

He fell about 150 feet.

“Once we know that there’s no life to be saved, then we slow things down and it becomes recovery,” Derban added.

“We notify RCMP, it becomes their jurisdiction, and the coroner gets involved as well.”

Derban said he had to tell the young man’s friends what had happened.

“I think it’s the sort of thing that you get better at or maybe more at ease with as you get a little older,” he said.

“Eighty years ago, my dad’s brother lost his life in that same area, in the same manner, off a cliff. So we just finished, you know, re-marking his grave with a stone. So it’s fresh in my mind. July 4, 1944, which is even before I was born. But he, you know, we’ve grieved his loss. And 80 years later, we’re marking it again.”

Derban said his uncle was 16 years old at the time.

“The park rangers at Lynn Valley Parks do a great job of patrolling,” he said.

“The dangerous areas are all behind fence now… It’s just not for people to do without a lot of care and attention. Don’t do it. Period.”

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