FlashAlert
Sweet Home Fire was dispatched at 6:45 pm yesterday to a waterfall near Longbow camp ground on the Gordon Meadows road east of Cascadia. There was a report of a male who fell off a water fall with unknown injuries. First to arrive was a Captain from the Cascadia station. An ambulance and rescue unit were close behind leaving another incident east of Sweet Home. Crews met the 911 caller on the Gordon road who advised the location of the male. The Captain had to go through frigid water and swim through a 10 foot wide canal with shear rock walls on each side to reach the patient. The water was 20 feet deep in some areas. The Captain reached the patient determined he had fallen approximately 35 feet. The ambulance crew gatherred rescue equipment including life jackets, ropes and a patient litter they on entered the water to make their way to the patient. Additional Water rescue personnel were requested with wet suits to respond from the fire station in Sweet Home. Firefighters rigged a "high line" using ropes suspended above the water to transport the patient back over the 80 feet of water to safety. After the Swift Water Rescue and ambulance personnel reached land with the patient, additional Firefighters and Linn County deputies carried the patient an additional 100 yards over a rocky trail to an awaiting ambulance. A life flight helicopter was waiting at Riverbend park approximately 10 minutes away. The patient was stabilized enroute to the helicopter so he could be safely flown to Riverbend hospital in Springfield. 14 Sweet Home firefighters were on the scene. Lebanon Fire District also responded with additional rope rescue personnel.
During that time Sweet Home Fire District responded to 3 additional emergency calls with limited personnel
As the weather gets warmer people may be tempted to take chances around some of our beautiful remote water features. Please remember if injured, you are taken emergency personnel out of service for sometimes 7 to 8 hours which means it may take that long for those injured to reach a hospital.
Please be careful when recreating in the wilderness as these types of incidents require emergency personnel to be unavailable for other emergency calls for extended periods of time.
This rescue would not have been possible without Volunteer Firefighters. If you are interest in helping in situations like these please consider becoming a Volunteer Firefighter by contact Recruitment and Retention Coordinator Ryan Paul at rpaul@sweethomefire.org.
If photo is available it can be found here
Male Rescued after falling over waterfall
