Members of a specialized ropes team and 26 firefighters rescued a person who had threatened to jump Monday night from the St. Johns Bridge.
The call began about 9:15 p.m. when Portland police were sent to check out a person mid-span on the bridge, according to Portland Fire & Rescue.
The person, not identified by authorities, had climbed over a railing and was too far below the road deck to be reached, and the Fire Bureau’s High Angle Ropes Team was called to the scene.
The team met with fellow firefighters and police to devise a plan, equal parts physics and strategy, to send a team member over the edge of the bridge, get the person and then haul the person and the rescuer back to the road deck.
Using the large fire engines as anchor points, the ropes team established a high point using the suspension cabling overhead to safely lower a rescuer over the edge of the bridge. The crew then pulled the rescuer and the person, secured to the rope system, back up.
The uninjured person was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
— Tom Hallman Jr
503-221-8224; thallman@oregonian.com; @thallmanjr
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