Four-year-old boy falls off cliff in California, lives

BODEGA BAY, Calif., Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A four-year-old boy fell 230 feet off the side of a cliff -- and lived!

Firefighters responding to a family's panicked call arrived around 5 p.m., as the boy's family -- his sibling, dad and mom -- panicked and pointed over the cliff's edge where her son had gone over.

He had been playing, throwing rocks down a trail head as the family took in the view; then he was gone.

With the family watching from the cliff face, firefighter-paramedics Marco Barros and Josh Perucchi rappelled down the cliff face, carrying a rescue basket, not knowing what condition the boy would be in, worried he'd fallen into the cold waters of the bay.

"You don't see a lot of people survive a fall from 200 feet," said acting Capt. Jason Downing of the Bodega Bay Fire Protection District.

Illumination flares sent up by the Coast Guard guided the firefighters as they searched for the boy's body in the fading light.

"He was at the water line and it was low tide," Capt. Justin Fox said. "If it was high tide, he wouldn't have been as easy to find."

"That's the highest section of cliff we have," he added. "Also, it has that sandstone and limestone that crumbles. It's a very challenging section of cliff as far as rescues go. Plus, there's the ocean when you get down there."

The boy wasn't the first to fall from the cliff. Three days earlier, a 23-year-old woman rock climbing slipped and fell 20-feet and was airlifted out with moderate injuries.

But there is a world of difference and newtonian physics between falling 20-feet and 230-feet. When rescuers found the child, his face was covered in blood and it wasn't clear what condition he was in, but reaching him, they sighed in relief at signs of life.

"He was crying and moaning a little bit," Downing told the Press Democrat at the scene.

Barros and Perucchi immediately readied the boy for transport, strapping him to a special board, packaging him in the rescue basket.

"By the time he reached the top of the cliff, he was crying," Fox said.

Other rescuers took the hand off, rushing the boy, wrapped in yellow blankets, to life support measures in the nearby ambulance.

A medivac helicopter was on hand but couldn't land due to foggy conditions so the boy was rushed by road to a local hospital in critical but stable condition.

Downing said a stress-team was also on hand to talk to the firefighters, many of whom have children of their own. After the emotionally draining ordeal, Downing told the LA Times they all "wanted to go home and hug our kids."

State Parks Supervising Peace Officer Tim Murphy commended the rescue crew's rope placement and rappelling skills for reaching the boy so quickly.

"Light was fading quickly," he said. "They made a good call."

"Hopefully he makes it," he added. "God loves little kids."