Nainaimo firefighters pulled two elderly men from the water after they fell out of a boat on Westwood Lake this afternoon while they were both fishing.
One of the men was airlifted to Victoria General Hospital unconscious. The second man was conscious when taken to Nanaimo General Hospital by ground ambulance.
Assistant Chief Greg Norman says the pair's boat capsized around 3 p.m. PT. He says two members of the public were assisting the victims when firefighters arrived.
"One fellow was fishing on a pontoon boat and the other fellow was on the shore, and the guy in the pontoon boat was holding on to the one guy who was unconscious, keeping him up," said Norman," and then the other fellow swam from the shore and tried to do as much as he could."
Norman says the two men were elderly, and he's not sure if they were wearing life jackets when they fell in the water.
MAP: Westwood Lake, Nanaimo, B.C.