BIDWELL—An 11-year-old boy from the Sudbury area is fortunate to have only sustained a broken arm after a serious fall on the Cup and Saucer trail. The boy lost his balance trying to climb down one of the ladders on the trail and fall 30 feet, then fell from another ledge a farther 15 feet to the ground.
“The incident took place on Sunday of this past weekend,” stated Forest Schut, chief of the M’Chigeeng Volunteer Fire Department on Wednesday of last week. “The boy was with some of his family members and was trying to climb down a ladder on the trail. He lost his balance and fell about 30 feet, bouncing off some trees and falling on the first level, bouncing off the ledge and then falling about another fifteen feet where he landed on cedar boughs, leaves and tree needles.” He was fortunate not to hit any boulders on the trail, said the fire chief.
The M’Chigeeng Fire Department responded to the call from Manitoulin-Sudbury EMS paramedics to provide lift assistance for the boy, at approximately 11:30 am on Sunday, July 20.
“The boy broke his arm, had a couple of scrapes on his back and was shook up,” said Fire Chief Schut. “Overall, he was in very good shape for what he went through and was coherent. He was in good spirits, singing when we carried him out.”
Fire Chief Schut explained, “five of our firefighters showed up. We travelled 1.5 kilometres up the trail from the parking lot to the scene of the incident. We were the first at the scene and we did an assessment on the boy, and put a sling on his arm, as we carried him out.”
He explained that to transport the boy, “we travelled using the quarry pit owned by Randy Noble, below the trail. I knew the area was good and is flat ground to make it easier to travel. The ambulance met us at the quarry, and the paramedics did a follow-up assessment on the boy and then transported him to hospital.”
Fire Chief Schut had also called the Central Manitoulin Fire Department to assist, “Fire Chief Phil Gosse was on the scene to back us up, and there were other members of their fire crew that were going to come out to the scene but we notified them they could stand down. It is great to have the cooperation of Central Manitoulin and M’Chigeeng Fire departments and the paramedics on hand. It is always good when neighbouring communities respond to help out as well.”
“The boy was fortunate, it could have been a whole lot worse for him,” added Fire Chief Schut.
