A man was rescued Saturday after a medical emergency left him stranded in a 30-foot-deep ravine in Harrison.
Emergency crews responded at about 11:15 a.m. to Cherry Bark Drive, off Oak Manor Drive near Harrison Hills Park, for a man stuck about 200 yards in the woods.
“He was working down there with a shovel and threw his back out,” said Mark Phillippi of Harrison Hills Volunteer Fire Company. “He was in a lot of pain.”
The patient was taken by Citizens EMS to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Harrison Hills VFC’s Mike Hunter said the terrain was so steep that it made for a delicate rescue.
Calls from Allegheny County dispatchers requested “lots of rope and lots of manpower.”
“We had to make sure we took our time and packaged him up OK to bring him back up,” Phillippi said.
It took about 20 first responders from Harrison’s three units — Harrison Hills, Citizens and Hilltop Hose — to rescue the man, Hunter said.
The rescue took less than an hour. Phillippi credited that to teamwork among the three departments.
