Krasnoyarsk man saves freezing victim from snowdrift at -30°C

Early on the morning of January 15, a man showing signs of severe hypothermia was rescued on Tatyshev Island in Krasnoyarsk. He was lying in the snow in light clothing at a temperature of around -30°C (-22°F) and could have died without help.

The incident was reported by Krasnoyarsk entrepreneur Sergey Volkov. According to him, around 6:30 a.m., he was running on Tatyshev. There were practically no people around—no passersby, no other runners.

“I headed to Tatyshev Island. I«m running, enjoying the movement, the frost, and this pristine winter silence. Suddenly, I hear a distant male cry—like someone working out to the limit on outdoor exercise equipment. I thought: »If I went out for a run in such frost, why wouldn«t someone be doing strength training?» But it turned out to be both simpler and more terrifying.

When I ran closer, I saw: in the snow, in light clothing, lay a man in clearly an inadequate state. Nearby—a park guard who was at a loss: alone, he couldn«t lift him. I instantly assessed the situation: things are bad. I told the guard to urgently call the police to the cable-stayed bridge, and for us to immediately pull him out of the snow,” Sergey Volkov recounts.

They tried to escort the freezing man to the elevator on the Cable-Stayed Bridge.

“The character came to his senses for seconds from the movement, started protesting: «I»m warm! I«m fine!»—which, as is known, is one of the last stages of hypothermia before irreversible. Then he «blacked out» again, started falling—we had to drag him.

“And then—a miracle! The time is 6:30, and a technical utility vehicle is driving along the road. I stopped it. Together, we shoved the poor fellow into the warmth, and it took him towards the hospital. I«m sure: if it had been another 15–20 minutes—by dawn, they would have found a corpse on the island,” Volkov writes.

According to eyewitnesses, if the man had stayed in the frost for another 15–20 minutes, it could have ended in death. At the time of the incident, there was practically no one on the island.

About how Krasnoyarsk is enduring the fierce Epiphany frosts, you can read in a unified story on the website.