California Crews Rescue Woman After 100-Foot Fall

April 8, 2008
Officials and rescuers said it was not clear how she fell down the hill.

POWAY, Calif. --

A dog is being credited with alerting a passer-by to a woman who fell down into a hill while walking a trail in Poway.

It happened Monday around 10:35 a.m. along the Mount Woodson Trail near Lake Poway off Lake Poway Road.

The Poway Fire Department said they set up a low-angle rescue system -- anchored up to a truck and a tree on the roadside -- to help hoist the woman to safety. Paramedics went down to her to treat and assess her, being sure to enter the canyon from the side so that the dirt would not be disturbed and injure her more, according to one official.

A friend of the woman, who was identified himself only as Devin, said the victim's name was Julie, and that she hiked the trail daily for the past five years. She was walking his dog at the time of her fall.

Officials and rescuers said it was not clear how she fell. Devin told NBC 7/39 he suspected she might have just stepped onto some loose gravel. He said it his dog Blue who alerted a woman on the trail to the accident.

"Blue comes bolting down the hill to get Julie -- and I guess he ran up and down a couple of times letting her know -- and then she saw Julie, and sent somebody down to go fetch the rangers," Devin said.

Julie screamed as firefighters hoisted her back up the steep hill. They said it appears she only suffered cuts and bruises, which is pretty remarkable considering the height of her fall. She was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Firefighters said the area where the rescue occurred was burned during the October Witch Creek Fire. The flames took away a lot of the vegetation in the area, but fire officials said they did not know if that played a role in the fall.

Copyright 2008 by NBCSandiego.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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