Chivalry isn’t dead.
Thursday night’s rescue in Harrison Hills Park proves it.
According to Citizens Hose Fire Chief TJ Bajack, a man and his girlfriend were walking along the Rachel Carson Trail, a 45-mile hiking trail that starts in Harrison, when the woman dropped her phone down the hillside.
The man climbed down to retrieve it for her and became stuck, Bajack said.
“He climbed down to get her phone,” Bajack said. “It was too steep for him to get back up.”
Rescue crews were called to the scene a little after 6:30 p.m.
About 25 emergency responders reported to the scene.
It took about an hour to set up ropes for rescue and get the man up the hillside, Bajack said.
Citizens Hose, Hilltop Hose and Harrison Hills fire departments were on scene. South Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department volunteers were called in for their all-terrain vehicle.
Bajack did not identify the couple. They left the scene uninjured, phone secured.
Bajack said the incident occurred in the same spot where a then 18-year-old woman needed to be rescued last April after falling 100 feet over the cliffside near the trail’s waterfall.
The Trib reported then that Citizens Hose performs one or two rescues in the park each year. It conducts rope rescue training with the Harrison Hills and Hilltop Hose volunteer fire departments every other month.
