California man stuck in seaside crevasse for days is rescued in time for Christmas

A man who was stuck in a seaside crevasse for more than a day was rescued last week after Southern California emergency crews spent 20 hours excavating him from the hole.

And first responders said he might still be there if a group of teens on a hike hadn't heard his cries for help.

The man, who was rescued Friday morning near Point Loma, a seaside community in San Diego was trapped in the “rocks near the surf for more than a day,” according to a Facebook post by San Bernardino Cave and Technical Rescue Team. 

The San Diego Fire-Rescue deputy chief of operations shared with The San Diego Union-Tribune that lifeguards responded to the location Thursday afternoon after receiving a report that someone may have dived over the cliff. 

They located the man fairly easily, trapped in an opening about 15 feet underground. 

“San Diego Fire, Chula Vista Fire, and San Diego Lifeguards worked all night in the rain to free him, but the rising surf hindered further attempts” that evening, the post reads. 

The rest of Thursday was spent “treating him with electrolytes, hot packs and blankets to keep him safe,” according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. 

Here’s what we know.

When was the man discovered?

The man’s pleas went unheard until about Thursday afternoon when a group of teens heard the man cry for help, the Union-Tribune reported.

They were walking along a trail in the area when one of the boys thought they heard a man shouting. 

“We were playing music and my friend Diego said, ‘Did you hear that?’ and thank God he did. We turned off the music and sure enough, there’s somebody calling for help,” one of the boys, Cole Stickley told the paper.

The group waited and spoke with the man until lifeguards arrived. The man told the group of friends that he had been stuck for a couple of days, the paper reported. 

One of the boys went headfirst into the opening to see if they could get the man out of the hole themselves, but he was unsuccessful. 

“Our friend Justin was like pretty much headfirst into this hole, trying to grab his hand while, me and our other friend were like grabbing his ankles making sure he doesn’t also fall in,” another boy, Chris Correa, told the newspaper. 

How was the man rescued? 

The man was rescued via microblasting techniques utilized by the San Bernardino Cave and Technical Rescue Team. The technique involves “delicate placement” of electrical charges in “order to break and move rock without harming the subject,” according to the post. 

As soon as his legs were free, the man was pulled up by fire personnel to a waiting ambulance, the post reads. 

The rescue team initially tried to break the rocks surrounding the man in hopes of freeing him. Each time a boulder was loosened, others proceeded to fall around him, according to the Union-Tribune.

The rescue attempt was made slightly more difficult as crews had to contend with “intermittent rain, gusty winds further, persistent burst of lightning and thunder in addition to a high tide” as the night wore on, the Union-Tribune reported.

Rescue efforts were paused for the evening due to the nature of the conditions. The man was kept warm and hydrated overnight, the Union-Tribune wrote. 

The tide had receded enough to complete the rescue by 8 a.m. Friday. Two rescuers ventured into the cave right below the man to break up and remove chunks of rock with the micro blast technique, according to the paper.

He was airlifted to the top of the cliff in a makeshift basket hooked to a crane on top of a San Diego Fire-Rescue vehicle, the Union-Tribune reported.

The man was then taken to a hospital to treat “major trauma injuries” he experienced while trapped. Despite the severity of his injuries, the man was able to thank the rescue team for their efforts, the Union-Tribune wrote.