SAN FRANCISCO—A father and his young son were rescued off of a San Francisco cliff on Saturday, September 19 firefighters from the San Francisco Fire Department announced.
The incident occurred at Fort Funston, at around 11:30 a.m. Firefighters had to use ropes and pulleys to access the father and his toddler on the steep cliff, and pulled them to safety.
According to firefighters, the incident happened on accident. The father described stepping off a marked trail, before they realized they were on a cliff 70 feet below the cliff’s edge.
“They saw how beautiful the water was below, and they attempted to walk down the cliff, which is something we advise people not to do,” San Francisco Fire Lt. Jonathan Baxter said in a video posted on the department’s Twitter account. When the pair realized what had happened, “They couldn’t go down, and they couldn’t go back up,” Baxter added. The father ended up calling 911, and managed to give the dispatcher almost exact details of his location, Baxter explained. The rescue reportedly took about an hour total.
As a result of the incident, firefighters have urged the public to use caution when hiking or enjoying beaches, cautioning against walking down a cliff even though the path may appear to be stable or safe.
