GOWANDA, N.Y. (Aug. 7, 2025) — Gowanda firefighters and ambulance crews handled a series of major incidents over the past week, including a two-vehicle crash with entrapment, a fall from a railroad trestle, and a rope rescue at the Angola Service Area on the New York State Thruway.

On Thursday evening around 6:48 p.m., units were dispatched to a crash at Broadway and Skinner Hollow Road. Crews extricated a passenger from one vehicle, while Cattaraugus Fire assisted with road closures. Mercy Flight landed in the roadway and transported one man to Erie County Medical Center. Another man and a woman were taken by ambulance to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. The Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office is investigating. The road reopened about 8:20 p.m.

Earlier in the week, on Saturday, Aug. 2, firefighters responded to a report of a woman who fell about 30 feet from a railroad trestle into the Cattaraugus Creek bed. Crews extricated the victim, who was flown by Mercy Flight to Oishei Children’s Hospital with serious injuries. Gowanda police are investigating.

The next day, Sunday, Aug. 3, Gowanda’s rope rescue team joined other Erie County units after a vehicle carrying seven people went off the roadway near the Angola Service Area on the I-90, broke through a fence and plunged about 150 feet into a creek bed. Firefighters assisted with extrication and rescue operations.