By Laura French
CORINTH, Vt. — A task force made up of New Hampshire and Vermont first responders helped save a man who fell 150 feet down an abandoned mine shaft on Saturday, officials said.
The Hanover, N.H., Fire Department said in a press release that the Technical Rescue Task Force was requested to assist at the scene in Corinth, Vt., where the injured man had been trapped inside the abandoned copper mine for more than two hours. The task force, made up of first responders from the Hanover and Lebanon, N.H., and Hartford and Thetford, Vt., fire departments, arrived at the scene just before 11 p.m.
Upon arrival, the task force assembled a twin tensioned rope rescue system and two firefighter-paramedics were lowered down into the mine shaft. The first responders evaluated the patient and placed him into a stokes basket before he was raised out of the shaft and then transported by Thetford Fire Department ATV to an Upper Valley ambulance about two-thirds of a mile away. The ambulance then carried the man to an awaiting University of Vermont Health Network helicopter and he was flown to the hospital for treatment.
“The total time from rescuers initially entering the mine shaft to the patient’s arrival at the UVM Health Network helicopter was under one hour,” Hanover Fire Department officials said in a statement Sunday.
Other agencies involved in the rescue included the Corinth, Tri-Village and Bradford fire departments and the Corinth-Topsham Fast Squad. The Norwich Fire Department provided station coverage to the Hanover Fire Station during the incident, and the Enfield Fire Department provided coverage for Lebanon Station 1.