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County Task Force carries out high-angle rescue

For the first time in a long while, the Red Deer County Technical Rescue Task Force has put their high-angle rescue training to work.

For the first time in a long while, the Red Deer County Technical Rescue Task Force has put their high-angle rescue training to work.

Ric Henderson, Red Deer County director of community and protective services, said in the past 10 years they may have responded to four or five calls where they need to use their rope training.

The task force responded, along with RCMP, Red Deer County Fire and Red Deer Emergency Services to a call of a woman who had fallen 46 metres off a cliff near Canyon Ski Hill on Thursday.

To extract the injured woman, the rescue task force had to set up at the top of the cliff and lower one person and a basket with a spineboard down to the bottom.

Safety of both the rescuers and the person in need of assistance is a primary concern for the task, which in the case of Thursday involved being at the side of a cliff in the dark.

Crews had to carry the equipment through a narrow path for about 750 metres from the road to the site to set up for the rescue.

They had to light up the area to perform the rescue, as well as locate a secure anchor position for the ropes.

“Quite often that is hard to find,” said Henderson. “You find the lone tree or the one large rock you can anchor on. That is quite a system to set up and there’s always a safety line on that as well.”

At the base of the cliff, there were two city fire-medics and four firefighters helping out and putting the woman on the spineboard safely before the trip back up the cliff.

The system was set up to lower a rescuer with a basket, spineboard and other necessary equipment and pull both of them back up.

“He has to basically walk up the cliff,” said Henderson.

The rescue took about two hours, including setting up the equipment to properly execute it.

Every week, the rescue task force, which has 35 members, practises to be ready for rope rescues, confined space resources, swift water rescues and structural collapse rescues. At the call on Thursday, eight were dispatched.

The nature of the injuries the woman suffered is unknown.

“I haven’t heard what the injuries are, but if it’s not something major I’d be surprised,” said Henderson.

She was transported to Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary by STARS Air Ambulance.

The incident does not appear to be suspicious and police said there will not be a criminal investigation.

mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com