27/July/2012 - Parachutist Tree Rescue – “A” Shift

Fire-Rescue was notified by the Lowcountry Regional Airport of a female parachutist who had landed in a tree near the end of one of the runways, close to Robertson Blvd and Old Air Base Road. The incident was reported at 11:01, Friday morning 27-July. Several units were dispatched to the area and began looking for the woman. Additional 9-1-1 calls were made to the Sheriff’s Office reporting the woman actually landed in the woods off of North Lemacks Street. The site was near the old Colleton Middle School near the intersection of Colleton Loop and North Lemacks Streets, about two blocks southwest of the originally reported location. Fire-Rescue responded with an Engine, Heavy Rescue, Ladder Truck, Ambulance and several support vehicles. The location turned out to be in the Walterboro City Limits, so their Public Safety Department was notified and also responded with several police units, an Engine and Ladder truck.

The woman’s red parachute was on top of the large pine tree and she was hanging in her harness from the tree. She was able to position herself on several small limbs near the top of the tree and remained there throughout the incident. She was approximately 75 feet in the air. The tree was well off of the road, down in a swampy area and was not accessible by any vehicles. A call was made to the Coast Guard but they refused to respond inland. Arrangements were made with the South Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team (SC-HART), which is a collaborative effort between the State Urban Search and Rescue Task Force (SC-TF1) under the direction of S.C. LLR, Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Army National Guard Aviation Unit based at McEntire. (This program has trained professional rescuers from SC-TF1 and highly-trained pilots and crew members from the Army National Guard and together they make a cohesive unit capable of performing helicopter rescue using the UH-60 Blackhawk.) They began assembling a team of rescuers with an estimated response time of an hour. In the meantime, Murdaugh’s Tree Service, a local tree company was contacted and also responded two tree technicians.

They left a job site in Branchville and arrived in about 25 minutes. Randal Thompson and Lee Murdaugh came to the scene with rope and rigging equipment. Using leg spikes, Thompson basically walked up the tree the entire 75 feet with little difficulty. He placed a different harness on the woman, tied her off to the tree, while Mr. Murdaugh belayed her from the ground. She was lowered from the top of the tree and was very glad to be back on the ground. She only received some minor scrapes and did not require transportation to the hospital. Mr. Thompson then removed the parachute from the tree and also lowered it to the ground, before he descended the tree. She was back on the ground at 12:17.

Rescuers were informed that while descending, the woman’s parachute was hit by another skydiver, which caused it to collapse. It reopened or she deployed her secondary chute close to the ground, but she did not have good control and landed in the tree. Another Skydiver saw the incident occur and landed near the site at the old Colleton Middle School. He ran into the woods where she was in the tree and helped guide Fire-Rescue personnel to her location. 

She was in good spirits throughout the ordeal. She communicated with rescuer’s on the ground and patiently waited until Mr. Thompson climbed up to her. It was reported that she went back up about two hours later to jumped again. Skydiving is popular at that Lowcountry Regional Airport. They are very safety conscious and do not have many incidents involving the parachutists.

Engine 19, Ladder 19, Medic 26, Rescue 1, Battalion 1, Car 105, Car 118 and Car 119 responded. Battalion Chief Brent Dalton served as Incident Commander.