Скачать или смотреть Signal Hill Rescue June 26 2016

A 19-year-old man is lucky to be alive today after falling over a 100-metre-high cliff on Signal Hill near midnight Saturday.

Witnesses say the man was part of a group of people who had just gotten out of either a party bus or a limousine in the parking lot at the top of the hill near Cabot Tower. They say the man climbed over a rock wall surrounding the parking lot, stumbled and fell over the steep cliff.

Emergency services responded to the scene within minutes but it took rescuers about an hour of searching the base of the cliff with flashlights to locate the victim. The man had suffered serious injuries in the fall and was treated by paramedics while an assessment was done to determine the best way to extricate the victim from the area.

Supt. Robert Fowler with the St. John’s Regional Fire Department said a helicopter was a first option, but in the end, the department’s high-angle rescue team was tasked with the difficult extrication. Extra personnel from the high-angle team were called in along with more equipment to support the effort. The team members then began to attach ropes to anchor points at the top of the hill to begin the descent to the victim who was still being tended to by paramedics. Members of the rescue team were then lowered to the scene with a rescue basket for the injured man.

Once the victim was secured, firefighters at the top of the cliff began a manual hoisting operation to pull everyone up the steep incline. Fowler said the operation took about three hours, not including the hour it took for them to find the victim.

He said there were about 20 fire department personnel on scene, including nine high-angle rescue team members, four Eastern Health paramedics and a number Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers.

Once the man was safely back at the parking lot, he was taken to hospital by Eastern Health paramedics.



EARLIER STORY



A rescue is in progress on Signal Hill at this moment after a nineteen-year-old male fell over a cliff next to the main parking lot near Cabot Tower.

Witnesses say the man was apparently part of a group of people that had just gotten out of a party bus in the area when he climbed over a rock wall and then stumbled over the side of the steep drop.

Supt. Robert Fowler says the man suffered serious injuries in the incident. It was initially thought a helicopter might be used to extricate the victim but personnel from the fire department’s high angle rescue team are being used instead. The team is now in the process of setting up ropes to facilitate the rescue.

More details as they become available.