CityNews reporter helps rescue man from Bow River
Posted Jul 14, 2026 3:41 pm.
Last Updated Jul 14, 2026 3:46 pm.
A CityNews Calgary reporter is being credited with helping save a man’s life after pulling him from a river on Sunday.
Phoenix Phillips says he and his wife were enjoying the afternoon along the Bow River at Harvie Passage when a woman shouted that there was “a body in the water.”
Phillips, a former lifeguard, immediately ran toward the river.
“When you hear that, I turn my head to the right, and there it was,” he said. “I looked at my wife and said, ‘here we go.’”
Phillips and several bystanders worked together to bring the man to shore. Phillips began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation once on land, while another person performed chest compressions.
“For fifteen minutes we worked on this guy,” Phillips said. “The only thing going through my mind was we got to give this guy a fighting chance.”
EMS confirmed the man was taken to hospital in life‑threatening condition.
Phillips estimates nearly a dozen people assisted in some way, from providing medical care to helping emergency crews and managing the crowd.
He later spoke briefly with the attending physician.
“He couldn’t offer me too much information, but he did look at me and say, ‘Phoenix, he has a pulse and you guys saved him,'” he says.
Phillips walked away with only minor scrapes from shielding the man’s head against a rock during the rescue.
He hopes the experience encourages others to learn first aid.
“If you can help somebody, you change somebody’s life…maybe even keep somebody’s life,” he said.
Alberta Health Services had no update on the man’s condition as of broadcast time.
