A 15-year-old girl was found safe this morning after an intensive search was initiated in Copper Ridge following a 911 call at 3:45 a.m. to report her missing.

Whitehorse RCMP Const. Dean Hoogland said the 911 call from a roommate prompted the decision to begin a full-blown emergency response, particularly given the extemely cold temperatures -23 C.

"Shortly after 8 a.m., a (police) member doing door-knocking in the area located the teenager,” Hoogland said.

An alert sent to local radio stations this morning indicated the teenager had been drinking and was dropped off at home at about 2 a.m., and that her jacket had been found later on the doorstep.

The radio alert asked residents in Copper Ridge, Logan, Granger, Arkell and McIntyre subdivisions to be on the lookout and check their backyards.

The girl could not get into her house but Hoogland is not sure why, as the officer in charge of the file was no longer on shift as Hoogland spoke to the Star later this morning.

Hoogland said she then walked to a friend's house and spent the night.

When her roommate, who'd been with her earlier in the night, arrived home to find she wasn't there but was supposed to be, she called 911, the RCMP spokesman explained.

Hoogland said regular duty officers and plainclothes officers on night shift as well as those arriving for dayshift were assigned to the alert.

A dozen members of the local search and rescue team were called in to assist.

A helicopter had been fuelled up and was ready to go at the airport when word came in at 8:10 a.m. that she'd been found, Hoogland explained.

A 15-year-old girl died in November 2012 after she was found lying at the Kopper King Trailer Park, not far from her home.

An autopsy determined she had died of hypothermia, and was intoxicated at the time.

She'd been dropped at home by a taxi, though the coroner could find no reason to explain why she hadn't gone inside.

The temperature was – 15 C that night.