Tag Archives: Rescue

Multi-Agency Response to Injured Hiker in the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon

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Coconino County Sheriff photo.

Coconino County Sheriff photo.

OAK CREEK — On Saturday, July 18, 2015 at approximately 4:07 pm the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a representative of the Arizona Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) advising that a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) had been activated with GPS coordinates in Illusions Canyon located within the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon. ADEM personnel determined who the registered owner of the device was and also advised that Air Force Personnel received the emergency signal as well. A multi-agency response was initiated.

Participating agencies included Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, US Air Force 55th Aerial Rescue Squadron based out of Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Sedona Fire District (SFD), the Arizona Department of Emergency Management and Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) Air Rescue based in Flagstaff.

At about 4:52 p.m. the Northern Arizona 911 reception center received a cell phone call from an individual who identified himself as a member of the hiking party that included the victim who was the subject of the activated PLB device. The caller advised that the victim was located in the area of the confluence of West Fork. According to the caller the victim suffered a broken leg at approximately 11:00 am that day and members of his party were not able to access cell phone service from the victim’s location. The caller hiked out of the canyon to a location where he could access cell phone service.

By 5:20 pm the CCSO resident deputy in Oak Creek Canyon and a Sedona firefighter were at the Call of the Canyon which is the trail head for West Fork. Two Sedona Fire Department Technical Rescue Teams were deployed into the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon on foot in an attempt to locate the victim. DPS Rescue Helicopter was not able to assist on Saturday due to active thunderstorms in the area. By 7:50 pm two CCSO SAR teams were at the top of the rim and established an Incident Command Post (ICP) off of Woody Mountain Road. Because of the weather and inability to launch a heli-rescue, the victim and others in the party were asked to shelter in place. Rescue crews on the ground also staged at the ICP overnight, camping in the rain and thunder storms.

At about 6:00 am on Sunday morning rescuers received a break in the storm activity. The DPS helicopter with a CCSO SAR technical rescue operator on board flew the area and located the party of six including the victim.

Two SFD technical rescue operators were inserted into the canyon via a helicopter rappel from the DPS aircraft. A CCSO SAR technical rescue ground team was staged at the rim. The DPS Ranger helicopter extracted the victim and a SFD rescuer using the Short Haul method during which the rescuer and victim are suspended on a line underneath the helicopter and flown to a safe area in this case the parking lot of the West Fork of Oak Creek trail head.

Sedona Fire transported the victim to the Flagstaff Medical Level One Trauma Center via ground ambulance. Two HH 60 Pave Hawk helicopters from the USAF 55th Air Rescue Squadron extracted the remaining 5 members of the victim’s party by hoisting them from the ground into the hoovering helicopters.

Seriously Injured Victim of Off Road Motorcycle Accident Rescued by Multi Agency Response

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640-PhotobFLAGSTAFF — On July 15, 2015 at approximately 1:30 pm the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Unit, Summit Fire District, Guardian Medical Transport, and AZ DPS Air Rescue responded to a motorcycle accident with serious injuries on Hundred Dollar Hill located within the Cinder Hills Off Road Recreation Area. Due to the terrain conventional emergency vehicles could not make access to the scene. The DPS helicopter could not land at the accident site either. A Search and Rescue UTV equipped for patient transport was driven into the crater.

Once the patient was stabilized efforts to remove the patient were initiated. The rescue of the accident victim took approximately 3.5 hours and the use of a CCSO UTV specially equipped with a patient litter basket. The patient was eventually flown to Flagstaff Medical Center by AZ DPS Ranger where he was treated for serious injuries he sustained as the result of this accident.

Rescue of fallen climber on Mount Elden

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Coconino County Sheriff photo.

FLAGSTAFF — Coconino County Sheriff 911 dispatchers received a report yesterday at about 10:45 a.m. of a 38-year old woman who fell 25-feet while climbing on the Schultz Pass side of Mount Elden in the area of Oldham Falls.

According to the caller a 38 year-old woman who was climbing on a rock face was attempting to place an anchor in a crack in the shear rock face where she was climbing. She fell approximately 25 feet, jerked to a stop at the end of her secured safety line, and slammed with a great deal of force into the rock face.

Coconino County Sheriff’s Deputies, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Search Unit and the Flagstaff Fire Department responded to the call for service. When the first responders arrived, by standers had already freed the victim from her line and she was positioned on the ground.

Flagstaff firefighters provided on scene medical care and prepared the victim for transportation in medical litter. Eight Flagstaff firefighters and seven Search and Rescue volunteers took turns carrying the victim approximately three-quarter of a mile to a waiting Guardian Ground Medical Transport unit.

The victim was transported to the Flagstaff Medical Level 1 Trauma Unit where she was treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Injured hiker rescued from the Grand Canyon Monday

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Photos courtesy of the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department.

640-GC-Rescue-03GRAND CANYON – Elements from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, Arizona DPS, Flagstaff Fire Department and National Park Service performed a dramatic rescue at the Grand Canyon in the early morning hours Monday. A 68-year-old Tuscon woman was injured when she fell from a trail while hiking.

The female hiker was hiking with two others along the Clear Creek Trail on Sunday, November 2 when about 7 p.m. she slipped and fell down a slope off of the trail. The hikers fall stopped with her head down slope and about three feet from a cliff’s edge that dropped down 80 feet to the creek bed below. When the hiker attempted to recover and move, she would slide further down slope due to very loose soil and rocks. The victim, fearing that she would slide over the cliff edge, lay still as her two friends activated a satellite emergency notification device or SPOT device.
640-GC-Rescue-02The National Park Service at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim was advised of the emergency notification and sent a ranger to area of the SPOT alert. The park service ranger hiked for six hours from Phantom Ranch, reaching the victim around 3:00 a.m. Rangers determined the victim had suffered some type of injury to her leg. Due to the dangerous and unstable ground, the Park Service requested assistance from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Unit and the Arizona Department of Public Safety Air Rescue helicopter, who have the capability to conduct night operations.

The DPS helicopter flew two heli-rescue members, one from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office and the other from the Flagstaff Fire Department into the canyon where they were able to land about a mile away from the victim. Rescuers hiked to the area where they had to secure ropes and rappel down to the victim. The victim was secured by a harness and then “short hauled” or flown out with a rescuer.

The victim was flown to the Grand Canyon Heli-base at the South Rim where she was transferred to a ground ambulance and taken to the Grand Canyon Clinic. She was treated for a fractured ankle and hypothermia and later released.