LOVELOCK, Nev., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A family lost in Nevada survived frigid conditions by starting a fire outside of their overturned vehicle, using the fire to warm rocks, police said.
Forty-eight hours after they went missing Sunday while traveling to a mountain range near Lovelock, James Glanton, 34, and his girlfriend, Christina McIntee, 25, and four children were found by members of a huge search party, CNN reported.
The group was found safe in an area called Seven Troughs, the Pershing County Sheriff's Office said. The search involved at least 200 people, along with technology, and spanned 6,000 square miles.
"I have never heard of such a thing, but I think it was pretty clever of him," Paul Burke, who coordinated the rescue effort for the state Department of Public Safety, said of building the fire and warming rocks at the site where the couple's vehicle flipped then slid down an embankment.
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"To the extent he was ingenious about it, that is one for the books," Burke told CNN Tuesday.
The couple, who didn't have extra blankets, started a fire, where they heated rocks, placing them in the vehicle's spare tire to keep the children, ages 3 to 10, warm at night.
Glanton and McIntee, their two children -- Evan and Chloe -- and McIntee's niece and nephew, were taken to Pershing General Hospital, where Dr. Doug Vacek said they were "very well."
He said none had frostbite but showed symptoms of mild hypothermia and dehydration.
Vacek and others told CNN several factors worked in the family's favor: They had water and some food, were dressed in heavy winter clothing, stayed near the vehicle, and could start and maintain a fire.
