A California man who became trapped on the side of a cliff for days was finally rescued by first responders after a daring, nearly 24-hour rescue effort.
Rescue crews finally freed the man on Friday morning after he had been trapped in a hole for days near the side of the Sunset Cliffs in San Diego, California, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
The rescue effort took about 19 hours, and first responders with the San Diego fire department (SDFD) described the extrication as “treacherous”.
“The location of this rescue [was] very treacherous for rescuers as well as the patient,” the fire department said in an update to social media.
The man reportedly slipped and fell under broken rocks near the side of the cliff, and he later became wedged in a small crevice.
The man was trapped from the waist down in a hole only 18in wide, ABC News reported. The size of the hole was an additional challenge for rescuers, the SDFD added on social media.
Happening now - @SDLifeguards & firefighters extricating a man who slipped & fell under broken concrete sections on the side of a cliff near Orchard & Cable in Sunset Cliffs area. Patient is stable. #cliffrescue pic.twitter.com/MF4ChL0pkU
— SDFD (@SDFD) December 22, 2023
The man reportedly told rescuers that he had been trapped under the rocks for at least three days, the local television news station KGTV reported.
On Thursday, a group of teenagers heard the man crying out for help, and they called 911, the Union-Tribune reported.
Rescuers first arrived to the scene at about 4pm Pacific standard time. Authorities with the SDFD and the Chula Vista fire department worked to free the man but had to pause the rescue effort overnight due to rising tides and inclement weather.
The man was given blankets and received fluids intravenously to combat dehydration, the Union-Tribune reported.
But rescuers say that the high tide combined with rain and wind brought up an additional concern: the possibility of the man drowning.
“Drowning was a concern for us last night … Our tides showed us that it wasn’t going to go over his head … But we did know that [water] was filling that bottom cavity cave where his legs were in between,” the San Diego fire-rescue deputy chief of operations, Dan Eddy, said to the Union-Tribune in a post-rescue update.
Using micro-explosives, rescuers were able to break up the heavy rocks and dislodge the man, the Union-Tribune reported.
The man was freed at about 11am on Friday and was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation.
He reportedly sustained injuries, but he was awake and alert at the time of the rescue and thanked crews who helped free him.
