Crews work to pull injured man from Spokane River bank

Spokane firefighters trained in high-angle rescues pulled a man from the rocky bank of the Spokane River today after he dropped about 20 feet down a cliff and was injured. The man was below an overlook area in Riverfront Park at the east end of Canada Island and upstream from the Upper Spokane Falls just north of the IMAX Theater. Crews stabilized the man’s neck and tended to other possible injuries before strapping him into a basket and lifting him out with a rope secured from an overlook walkway above the cliff face. Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said park security reported that the 39-year-old man jumped off the cliff just after 11 a.m. He may have had back injuries and broken bones, and was taken to a local hospital by ambulance, he said.