Rescuers Respond to Calls for Hiking Fall Victims

Pomeroy Tank Rescue

FLAGSTAFF – On Saturday June 10 at approximately 9:30 am the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, Ponderosa Fire District, Lifeline Ambulance, Arizona Department of Public Safety Northern Air Rescue Unit, and Guardian Air Transport responded to a report of an injured adult male hiker who fell approximately 20 feet from a rock at Pomeroy Tanks near Williams.

Sheriff’s Office personnel and EMS personnel located the patient who was suffering from serious injuries. Due to the injuries and the location of the incident, a short haul rescue was performed and the subject was then transported to a waiting air ambulance.

The short haul rescue involved connecting the patient and a rescuer to a rope suspended 150 feet below the helicopter and then flying a short distance to an area suitable for transferring the patient to another helicopter for transport to the hospital. The patient, a 47-year-old male from Phoenix, was transported to Flagstaff Medical Center.

On Monday June 12, 2017 at approximately 8:30 am the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, and Guardian Medical Transport responded to a report of a hiker who was injured in a fall in Walnut Canyon near the Canyon Vista Campground.

The adult male hiker was located by paramedics from Guardian Medical and assessed for injuries. Search and Rescue personnel hiked in with a litter and litter wheel to assist with a carry out o the patient to the ambulance at the trail head. The patient, a 63-year-old male from Carrollton, Texas, was transported to Flagstaff Medical Center with serious injuries.