Woman Rescued After Getting Trapped On Snowy Hillside In Frigid Temperatures
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ROSS TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- In this bitter blast, emergency crews on Tuesday pulled a woman to safety after she got trapped on a snowy hillside.
"It was a little too wooded to see, but I could definitely hear her cry for help," said Angel Irizarry, who saw the rescue happening.
The woman was stranded 50 feet down a snowy hillside in Ross Township.
"I saw the commotion with all the responders' trucks, so I went over to the side of the building and saw them helping her out over on the hill," said Irizarry.
It happened around 5:30 p.m., just above McKnight Road. Officials are not sure how the woman ended up down the hillside. They also don't know how long she was waiting to be rescued.
"We basically had to utilize a rope system and a Stokes basket and get all of our personnel and equipment down to that location," said Ron Coleman, Operations Supervisor of Ross/West View EMS.
A U-Haul Center on McKnight Road sits at the bottom of the snowy hillside where the woman was trapped. A man working there heard the woman screaming for help and called 911.
"We did a lowering system off of the hillside into the medic unit," said Coleman.
He added that the slippery hillside made the rescue even tougher.
"With the snow and the ice and the cold temperatures, in general, it made it a little more challenging," said Coleman. "All I know is that the area she was in was a little more wooded, so they had to cut her free or loosen some branches or something like that," said Irizarry.
The woman was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. It's unclear if she has any injuries. Her identity has not been released.