PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Fire & Rescue crews set up a rope rescue system Thursday evening to help a man who fell over a railing and down a steep cliff off of Terwilliger Boulevard in Southwest Portland.
Fire crews were dispatched at 9:20 p.m. after the man called and reported that he had fallen down the steep wooded slope between Terwilliger and Barbur Boulevard near the OHSU campus, although the exact location was initially unclear, according to a news release from PF&R.
Crews began searching from both boulevards, and the victim told dispatchers that he could see the fire truck lights on Barbur, which prompted the crews to start setting up a staging post on the lower road. But they still struggled to find him, even with the man shouting and waving his cellphone flashlight.
Other PF&R personnel on Terwilliger heard the victim shouting and finally located him at a point about 70 feet down the slope from the road, with a 20-foot retaining wall at the top. The staging post shifted to Terwilliger, and crews began planning to hoist the man back up the slope.
Rescuers used ladders to get to the base of the retaining wall and then used ropes anchored to the firetrucks parked on Terwilliger to move down the slope to reach the man. They found he had hip and leg injuries and would need to be fully lifted and carried out with a "low angle rope system." Crew members used a chainsaw to clear a path through the brush while others loaded the man into a rescue basket.
Six firefighters at the top of the hill served as a haul team, with a tool attached to prevent the rope from slipping backwards. They got the man up to the base of the retaining wall, and initially considered setting up a crane and winch to lift the basket the final 20 feet, but concluded they could continue pulling by hand.
They got the man back over the railing and onto an ambulance stretcher just after 10:30 p.m., and he was taken to a hospital for evaluation. The PF&R news release did not include any information about how he fell or the extent of his injuries.
