Yahoo Finance Church Group Is Rescued During Hike in Phoenix While Filming Reality Series Bad Girls Gone God
Rescue team saving the group of hikers.
Multiple people have been rescued in Phoenix after suffering heat-related illness during a hike.
The 15-person group of mostly women gathered from Alabama, Tennessee, and California, had been hiking the Echo Canyon Trail at Camelback Mountain on Thursday morning when things took a turn. According to Fox 10, the group was together to film a reality series called Bad Girls Gone God, where they tackle intense physical and spiritual activities to get closer to God.
Around noon, five hours in, some of the hikers started to feel sick in the high heat. The situation quickly escalated as they had little water and supplies.
"We had no idea going into it that this apparently was one of the hardest trails in Phoenix," Kristin Livingston said, AZFamily.com reported.
According to the outlet, the rescue was made more difficult for first responders because the group was spread out all over the trail.
Eight hikers were removed from the mountain, with a helicopter called in to get five of the people. Three of the eight saved – a 50-year-old woman, 42-year-old woman and 24-year-old man – were hospitalized in stable condition.
Cpt. Evan Gammage of the Phoenix Fire Department said that the department's new drone was a huge help in tracking down the group.
"Our drone was able to get up quickly, locate different groups who are separated, and let us know if they were stable and give us a visual evaluation," Gammage said, per Fox 10.
The Phoenix Fire Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
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Despite the fright, one of the women credited the trail rescue to divine intervention.
"God was definitely with us," Tatiana Robinson told Fox 10. "We're thinking if they didn't call -- I don't know what would've happened, but we wouldn't have made it, maybe
The city of Phoenix reports that rescues like these from the strenuous Camelback mountain are so common that the Echo Canyon Trail is occasionally closed on especially hot days as a preventative measure.
