On August 15, 2026, The Defreestville Fire Department along with North Greenbush Ambulance was dispatched to 100 Stone Clay Road for a technical rescue in the Rensselaer Tech Park hiking trails. The caller reported falling on the trail and was injured. Defreestville car one called in route to the scene with rescue nine and requested a second alarm tech rescue box to be transmitted and units to respond nonemergency to the scene. The Wynantskill Fire Department, East Greenbush, Poestenkill Fire Department, West Sand Lake Fire Department for their ATV, Menands Fire Department for a standby at the Defreestville Fire Department, City of Rensselaer Fire Department for their drone team, and Best Luther Fire Department for their ATV to the scene.

Firefighters arrived on scene and Defreestville car one took command of the scene and set up command on Stone Clay Road. Firefighters made their way into the trail and attempted to locate the down hiker. Additional resources quickly began to arrive on scene along with the City of Rensselaer’s drone team. Firefighters set up a staging area while the drone team set up at the command post. Command worked with the dispatchers of the Rensselaer County Emergency Communication Center to get a hold of the down hiker and stayed on the phone with them. Firefighters from the drone team sent their drones up into the air and headed to the location of the injured hiker. Firefighters inside of the woods along the trail were unable to locate the individual. After a short period of time, and with constant communication between the dispatcher and the command post firefighters were finally able to locate the injured hiker after she was able to see the drone above her.

Firefighters from the West Sand Lake Fire Department set up on route four by the Defreestville fire station. Firefighters from the West Sand Lake Fire Department made their way onto the trails near the power lines on route four and made their way into the woods with their ATV. The North Greenbush ambulance made their way over on route four to stage as after a short period of time at the command post they were able to determine that the best location and access point was off of route four. Command had all of the firefighters that were near Stone Clay Road exit the woods and re-gather at the command post and staging area.

Firefighters from the West Sand Lake Fire Department made their way to the injured hiker. Firefighters began to assess the injuries and loaded the down hiker into the ATV. The command post was able to watch the drone footage and the crews working on scene. After the hiker was loaded onto the ATV, firefighters notified command that they were on their way out to meet the ambulance. After an extended period of time due to the trails conditions, firefighters made their way to the Ambulance with the down hiker. The hiker was turned over to the Ambulance for an evaluation. The individual was transported to the hospital. Firefighters went back into service in about one hour. It is highly recommended to bring a charged cell phone with you when hiking along the trails in North Greenbush and to make sure someone knows where you are in case of an emergency. In your backpack you should also have a flashlight, first aid kit, and a whistle and any other items you may need in case of an emergency.

The command staff at the Defreestville Fire Department has had previous experience with these types of incidences before in other parts of the tech park and our seasoned veterans on these incidents and have created specialized box alarms that bring in resources that are highly valuable and necessary for these types of incidences. These types of incidents can become extremely manpower intensive, but one of the resources that was provided to assist with this incident was the City of Rensselaer Fire Department’s drone team. The drone team was able to successfully conduct a rapid search from above in areas that would take firefighters on foot anywhere between 30 to 40 minutes to get to safely. This also reduces the chances of injuries of firefighters working in the wooded areas as the RPI tech park has some of the largest walking trails with extremely unique conditions in the town of North Greenbush. With a full monitor, and multiple other resources on site that comes along with the city of Rensselaer Fire Department’s drone team it makes operations on these types of incidents and multiple other incidents operate smoothly and normally brings these types of incidences to a quick end. The additional resources from the other fire departments that provided all-terrain vehicles to gain access to these locations also provide valuable resources to the town of North Greenbush as they do not have an all-terrain vehicles to gain access to these locations.