Reports of people in water that prompted rescue operation at Peggy’s Cove a false alarm

A false alarm at Peggy’s Cove is raising questions about the impact on emergency services.

Reports of people in the water at Nova Scotia’s best-known tourist attraction on Monday turned out to be a false alarm.

Emergency crews were dispatched to Peggy’s Cove just before 4 p.m. after reports suggested two people may have fallen off the rocks into the frigid ocean water.

The 911 call came in from someone watching a live video feed from the Nova Scotia Webcams site.

Local emergency crews, two coast guard ships and two helicopters were deployed, but nothing was found in the water.

In addition, crews on land verified the safety of everyone visiting, cross-referencing with vehicles in the parking lot.

“It was determined that the two individuals had gone down on the east side of the lighthouse and they were able to confirm that they came up from the lighthouse on the west end and left the area,” said District Fire Chief Darren Dahl.

Investigators believe the person watching the webcam may have been misled when the feed refreshed.

While the incident that prompted the large response turned out to be a false alarm, Dahl says it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

“We’ve had people fall in the water there and the video footage was credible so we wanted to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to rule out that any individual had fallen in the water,” he said.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko and Hafsa Arif

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