Firefighters rescue injured hiker at Saugus’ Breakheart

SAUGUS – Firefighters were called to hike in Breakheart Reservation nearly half a mile over rough terrain Monday to rescue an injured hiker.Fire Chief James Blanchard said a call came in at 4:52 p.m. for a hiker who had taken a bad fall on the Saugus trail in Breakheart. The Saugus trail is a wooded path that branches off the paved pathway that loops through the park.”The trail’s pretty rough,” Blanchard said. “Somehow he fell and he landed on his face.”Blanchard said the man didn’t have a cell phone and he doubted he would have been able to use it if he had.”He had some serious blood loss,” he said.It was luck, Blanchard surmised, that another hiker or possibly a ranger came across the injured hiker and called for help. The problem was they couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the hiker was on the long, roundabout trail.As firefighters headed to the reservation, Blanchard said park rangers told them that the easiest access point would be behind the condos on Sherwood Forest Lane. It was, however, anything but easy, Blanchard said.Firefighters thought they would be able to use a six-wheeled vehicle that the rangers use that even has a place to tie a stretcher on, but Blanchard said the land was so treacherous that even the all-terrain vehicle couldn’t handle it.Instead, firefighters were forced to hike in on foot with a Stokes stretcher – a deep carrier that allows them to tightly secure a patient for transport.”They had to carry him out over some very steep terrain,” Blanchard said. “Capt. (Don) McQuaid was in charge. The men did a great job.”Blanchard said it took six men almost three hours to reach, treat and carry the hiker out.While he didn’t get the man’s name, Blanchard said he was an older gentlemen in very good shape.”He was in really, really good physical shape, he probably does this all the time; he must have just stumbled and fell.”Blanchard said just last week he spoke with Breakheart officials regarding trail rescues while firefighters were at the park for a mock water rescue.”We’re pretty well prepared for water rescues. What frightens me is what if someone goes down on one of the trails that winds around out there,” he said. “How do we get to him?”Blanchard said he didn’t expect the man’s injuries, while they were serious, to be life threatening but he said they could have been, had someone not found him.”He was really lucky,” he said. “No one was really looking for him.”Ed Murray; chairman of the friends of Breakheart, said although the hiker looked ‘a little worse for the wear’ he was back hiking the trails on Tuesday.