A hiker who fell in Firth Canyon on San Bruno Mountain sustained moderate injuries Saturday evening, prompting a helicopter hoist rescue after ground crews determined the steep, narrow trail left no safe way to carry the patient out on foot. North County Fire Authority personnel hiked into the canyon to reach the injured hiker before requesting an aerial extraction from California Highway Patrol Helicopter H-30.
The rescue was detailed in a Facebook reel posted by CHP Golden Gate Division Air Operations, which described ground personnel determining that a hoist was the only viable solution once they reached the patient in the canyon. A Helicopter Rescue Technician from Daly City Firefighters Local 2400 was inserted at the scene and packaged the patient into a hot seat device before both were hoisted up to H-30 hovering overhead. The aircraft is an Advanced Life Support-equipped Airbus H125 based at Napa County Airport that operates under CHP's Golden Gate Division to provide aerial search, rescue, and hoist capabilities across nine Bay Area counties, according to Lian Media.
Once clear of the canyon, the patient was lowered to a waiting American Medical Response San Mateo County ambulance for transport. AMR serves as the primary contracted ground ambulance provider for San Mateo County Emergency Medical Services, maintaining Advanced Life Support units that coordinate with air rescue teams at designated staging areas before patients reach regional trauma centers, per background compiled by the City of Brisbane.
Why the Canyon Trail Demanded an Air Rescue
Firth Canyon sits within the San Bruno Mountain State and County Park trail system in Brisbane, where narrow, steep dirt single-track paths and slippery descents severely limit vehicle access, according to Redwood Hikes. That terrain is exactly why ground crews so often conclude that carrying an injured hiker out on foot simply is not realistic, leaving a helicopter hoist as the fastest and safest option. The canyon also lies within the San Bruno Mountain Habitat Conservation Plan area, an ecologically sensitive zone that protects rare native grassland flora and critical habitat for endangered species like the Mission Blue Butterfly, per San Mateo County Parks records.
The hoist itself relied on a formal partnership between CHP flight crews and municipal firefighters. The Helicopter Rescue Technician program trains firefighter-paramedics from departments including Daly City Firefighters Local 2400 and North County Fire Authority to conduct joint aerial hoist and cliff rescue operations, a framework that lets a state police helicopter insert a local firefighter directly into remote terrain to stabilize and package a patient. H-30's rescue hoist assembly is engineered to perform extrications from as high as 150 feet above the ground, deploying the same kind of hot seat harness used in Firth Canyon when the terrain won't allow the aircraft to land.
Part of a Busy Week for Regional Air Rescue Crews
The Firth Canyon call came just three days after the same agencies teamed up for a separate cliff rescue in Daly City, when North County Fire Authority and CHP H-30 extracted an adult male paraglider who had crashed 500 feet down a cliff below Northridge Drive. Hoodline previously reported on that 90-minute cliff rescue, which underscored how frequently these agencies are called upon to run joint air-ground operations in the region's cliff and canyon terrain.
It is not an isolated pattern. In January, CHP H-30 and North County Fire Authority conducted a similar hoist extraction on the Farallones View Trail in Pacifica to rescue a mountain biker who was seriously injured in a fall, and in December 2024, the same pairing carried out a high-angle hoist rescue along Highway 1 near Devil's Slide to pull an injured hiker off a coastal cliff face. North County Fire Authority itself was formed in 2003 through a Joint Powers Authority agreement among Brisbane, Daly City, and Pacifica, consolidating emergency services across 60 square miles for a population of more than 185,000 residents.
The exact identity and current condition of the Firth Canyon hiker have not been released, and it remains unclear what activity they were engaged in at the time of the fall. It is also not yet known whether park officials plan any additional trail safety warnings for visitors following the rescue.
