Man rescued after falling over waterfall

Click here for updates on this story

    LINN COUNTY, Oregon (KPTV) — Fire crews say a man is safe after falling over a waterfall on Monday afternoon.

Sweet Home Fire District was dispatched at 6:45 p.m. to a waterfall near Longbow campground east of Cascadia. There was a report of a male who fell off a waterfall with unknown injuries.

The Captain from the Cascadia fire station had to go through frigid water and swim through a 100-foot-wide canal with shear rock walls on each side to reach the patient. The water was 20 feet deep in some areas.

After reaching the man, it was determined he fell 35 feet. Firefighters rigged a “high line” using ropes suspended above the water to transport the patient back over 80 feet over water to safety. Firefighters and deputies then carried the man an additional 100 yards over a rocky trail. A life flight helicopter later took the man to Riverbend hospital in Springfield to be treated. His condition has not been released.

Fire officials say as the weather gets warmer people may be tempted to take chances around some of our beautiful remote water features. Please remember if injured, you are taking emergency personnel out of service for sometimes 7 to 8 hours which means it may take that long for those injured to reach a hospital.

Please be careful when recreating in the wilderness as these types of incidents require emergency personnel to be unavailable for other emergency calls for extended periods of time.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.