Community Corner

UPDATE: Dangerous Beauty: Three More Injured at Falls in Mill Creek Canyon

Video report from Big Falls, in Mill Creek Canyon below the San Gorgonio Wilderness, east of Redlands, Calif., Thursday July 4, 2013. Redlands-Loma Linda Patch video by Guy McCarthy.

Update 9 p.m. July 6: Three more people were injured and rescued Saturday at the falls in Mill Creek Canyon, a paid-call firefighter tells Redlands-Loma Linda Patch.

An 8-year-old boy fell or tumbled and his parents found him unresponsive before noon Saturday, Thom Wellman of Station 99 in Forest Falls said in a phone interview.

"He regained consciousness as we were placing him in the ambulance," Wellman said.

Later in the afternoon, a 13-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl both fell at the same location where a 19-year-old Orange County girl fell on July 4, Wellman said.

That part of the falls is known to long-time Forest Falls residents and first-responders as Blood Rock.

On Thursday, the 19-year-old girl was flown by helicopter to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. She was believed to be recovering, Wellman said Saturday.

The three children who were injured and rescued Saturday were all transported for hospital treatment by ground ambulance crews, Wellman said.

Posted 2:55 p.m. July 5: The falls in Mill Creek Canyon, which attract visitors of all ages from across Southern California and beyond, are beautiful but dangerous.

On Thursday July 4, siblings and strangers rushed to the aid of a girl who fell and struck her head on rocks at Big Falls, and she was rescued by a contingent of firefighters, medics and a helicopter crew.

Redlands-Loma Linda Patch was at Big Falls before the girl fell before 11 a.m. on a steep section known to some long-time Forest Falls residents as Blood Rock.

The video attached to this report includes footage before and after the girl fell and it includes an interview with witness Zaida Rodriquez, 21, of San Bernardino.

Firefighters from Station 99 in Forest Falls, Engine 34 at Mill Creek Ranger Station, and Station 98 in Angelus Oaks responded, along with medics from AMR Redlands Division.

An Upland Fire-Reach helicopter crew - Pilot Martin Schubert, Chief Flight Nurse Patty Murphy, and Medic Greg Lattimore - flew her to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton.

A sign at the trailhead below Big Falls warns visitors of the hazards:

"Wet rocks below the waterfalls and unstable cliffs have resulted in falls that have claimed many lives."

Public safety officials urge everyone use caution at the falls.

All text, photos and video by Redlands-Loma Linda Patch Editor Guy McCarthy.


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