Lesson 1 Bonding with Others
BREAKING NEWS
An Unusual Rescue Effort
A missing hiker named Rene Compean was found safe on Tuesday by a rescue team in Angeles National Forest.
It turns out that a photo played a key role in saving his life.
Let’s go over to Marissa Reynolds for more details on this story.
Thank you, Thomas. I’m standing here at the entrance of Angeles National Forest.
As you just heard, Rene Compean was recently rescued from this forest.
Compean, an experienced hiker who knew the area well, went on a hike alone on April 12.
However, a recent forest fire had destroyed some signs, which caused him to take a wrong turn and get lost.
He tried shouting for help and even wrote SOS on the ground in case a plane or helicopter passed by.
He had planned to hike for only about two hours, but night was coming.
It started getting very windy and the temperature was dropping quickly.
Compean was deep in the forest, so his cell phone couldn’t get a signal.
To make matters worse, its battery was nearly dead.
He climbed up to a higher spot and found a weak signal.
He used the last of his battery to send a text message to his friend.
In the message, he said that he was lost and needed help.
He also sent a picture to show his surroundings.
Compean’s friend shared the message and the picture with the local police.
When the local police were informed of the missing hiker, they immediately sent a rescue team.
Despite searching through the night, they still didn’t have any idea where Compean was.
In the picture, his legs were hanging over the edge of a canyon with rocks and green trees.
His legs were covered in black ash from the recent forest fires.
However, the picture didn’t help the police much because the quality was poor due to the weak signal, and his location settings were turned off.
As Compean had already spent one night in difficult conditions,
the police worried about his spending a second night.
So they decided to use social media to find out if anyone could find clues in the picture.
They posted the picture and asked if anyone recognized the scenery.
The picture shared by the police was seen by a Californian named Ben Kuo.
One of his hobbies is examining satellite images to track forest fires and informing people of potential dangers.
He also enjoys determining where pictures were taken and where movies were filmed.
When he saw the picture of Compean, he was immediately interested.
When Kuo saw the black ash on Compean’s legs, it reminded him of a recent forest fire.
This helped him to infer Compean’s approximate location.
Kuo was very familiar with the area because he had tracked the fire before and had checked the features of the area in satellite images.
From the plants and trees in Compean’s picture, Kuo guessed that it must be the south side of the mountain.
The north side does not have any green valleys like those in the picture.
As a final step,
Kuo compared the view in Compean’s picture with more satellite images.
Finally, he found a match and provided the police with Compean’s probable location.
The police sent a rescue helicopter to the location and found Compean less than a mile away from the area indicated by Kuo.
Thanks to Kuo’s unusual skills, Compean was rescued unharmed.
He later thanked Kuo on a video call.
The local police are now reminding hikers who hike alone to inform others of their planned route and to always bring a paper map.
This is Marissa Reynolds from LA. Now back to the studio.
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