PORT ANGELES — A 14-year-old girl who plunged about 100 feet off a Port Angeles bluff known as “The End of the World” Wednesday afternoon was flown by air ambulance to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, emergency personnel and a Coast Guard spokesperson said.
Assistant Port Angeles Fire Chief Mike Sanders said the girl, who was communicating with emergency personnel while being initially treated, suffered an injury to an extremity. He did not know the extent of possible internal injuries.
The girl was a Stevens Middle School student, according to an email from the school. Extra staff and counselors will be on hand at school today to counsel pupils, according to the email.
The girl’s identity was unavailable from authorities on Wednesday afternoon, so her condition could not be ascertained from Harborview.
Darrell Sharp, Port Angeles Fire Department assistant chief of operations and emergency medical services, said she fell off a cliff known by area residents as “The End of the World” at the end of 10th Street west of the McKinley Paper Co. mill to the beach below. The rescue took place below 10th and Walker streets.
A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew hoisted her up from there in a stokes basket, airlifting her to Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles at Ediz Hook, 13th District Coast Guard spokesperson Michael Clark and Fire Department Capt. Kelly Ziegler said.
Fire department personnel transported her from Ediz Hook to Fairchild International Airport, where she was flown by Life Flight Network fixed-wing aircraft to Harborview, authorities said.
Fire department personnel arrived at the bluff base at 1:07 p.m. Wednesday, according to an agency press release. Clark said the helicopter arrived to extricate the girl at about 2:10 p.m.
Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith said department school resource officers talked with the girl at the scene.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith stretches caution tape around an area of unstable bluff at 10th and Walker streets in Port Angeles on Wednesday. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Rescuers, police and others look off a foggy bluff above where an injured person was located on the beach below on Wednesday in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
