A ladder truck crew from the Newport Fire Department and personnel from the Lincoln County technical rescue team lift a woman off the beach in the Yachats River estuary Monday afternoon after she fell down a steep, rocky path. (Yachats Rural Fire Protection District photo)Crews manning the Newport Fire Department’s ladder truck and the Lincoln County technical rescue team plucked a woman from the sand at the bottom of a basalt cliff below Ocean View Drive in Yachats Monday afternoon when Yachats firefighter/paramedics determined they could not safely haul her up a narrow uneven path 100 yards away.
Yachats firefighters/paramedics called in the ladder truck from the Newport Fire Department on Monday after they felt it was too unsafe to haul a woman across and up a basalt cliff and path below Ocean View Drive. (Yachats Rural Fire Protection District photo)Yachats crews were dispatched at 1:42 p.m. Monday after a woman became entangled in two dog leashes, fell down the rocky ledge and suffered a leg injury. The only nearby path from the road to the beach was uneven and narrow, and presented safety issues for both the patient and first responders, said Yachats firefighter/paramedic Joe Schwab, and the women was comfortable without movement. Luckily, Newport’s ladder truck was available and the technical rescue team was training in Newport.
“We don’t use it a lot in Yachats, but in this case it was the simplest and safest way to bring her up,” Schwab said. “We were blessed. It was great to get Newport’s ladder truck down here and the technical rescue team with it.”
The woman, who was not publicly identified, was taken to Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital for treatment two hours after the initial call.
Well, I’m not surprised. In my Yachats Cozy Mystery “Happy Endings”, a woman falls to her death in the same place! She was not as lucky. Read all about it. The book is at “Books and More” in Yachats.
Rest easy Kathy. You are in our prayers and hope you heal soon.