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COLUMBIA COUNTY, NY - On Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 3:52 p.m., Copake firefighters were dispatched by Columbia County 911 to assist in the rescue of an injured hiker on Round Mountain on the Connecticut-Massachusetts border near Mt. Washington.

Upon arrival, Egremont Fire and Southern Berkshire Ambulance members had already made their way to the patient and had stabilized the 43-year-old New Jersey man. The man had fractured his right leg when he fell while hiking and became trapped on a ledge. The rescue was successfully completed and Fire Departments were back in service by 8:00 p.m.

One team of rescuers brought the man to the summit of Round Mountain from the ledge and requested a helicopter extraction. Another crew set out to find a suitable path and rigging points if the victim needed to be brought down via rope and met up with the crew on the summit. A NYS DEC Ranger directed the helicopter extraction operation. The man was airlifted to the Great Barrington airport where he was transferred to a Southern Berkshire ambulance and taken to Fairview Hospital.

Rescue crews on scene included Fire Departments ; Egremont Fire, MA; Copake Fire, NY; Sheffield Fire, MA; and the NorthWest Connecticut Fire Department Task Force Rope Rescue Team, Massachusetts State Police, Massachusetts Environmental Police, Massachusetts DCR Rangers, NYS DEC Rangers, and the NYS Police Air Unit. Hillsdale firefighters were put on standby for Egremont.