Crews were called to an east end lookout after a woman fell about six metres down a rock face and sustained serious injuries.
The Ottawa Fire Service’s rope rescue team responded to Rockcliffe Lookout, near the intersection of Promenade Sir-George-Etienne-Cartier and Lisgar Road at 1:45 a.m. on Wednesday.
When they arrived, one crew member and a tactical paramedic rappelled down the rocks to assess the person. From there, the firefighters realized they could access her from the Ottawa River shoreline around the lookout.
According to Nick DeFazio, Ottawa fire’s public information officer, the woman was conscious.
The crew brought a Stokes basket that had a wheel at the bottom, allowing them to quickly move the patient from the area up to the roadway, where the ambulance was.
She sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was sent to the hospital in serious but stable condition, Marc-Antoine Deschamps, the superintendent public information officer, told CityNews.
The operation ended at 2:31 a.m.
The rope rescue team also rescues people from trenches, ice and water.
“Our rope rescue teams are strategically placed across the city at three fire stations, one east, one west and one central, who are always training and are ready to respond to these types of incidents,” DeFazio told CityNews in an interview.
The rope team is active in the winter and summer helping people from Ottawa’s many bodies of water.
But it is not often that the team responds to a rockface. A similar rescue was needed in September 2024, when a man was trying to climb the cliffs near the Alexandra Bridge.
He was stuck on a cliff after climbing from the bridge towards a statue. According to firefighters, the resident was approximately 15 feet down the cliff and was unable to return to safety.
The team lowered a rescuer by rope over the cliff and down to the resident, and were able to secure the man into a harness, before he was returned to safety.