A rescue helicopter hoisted an injured patient from a stretch of rugged, inaccessible terrain northeast of Pine Cove in the San Jacinto Mountains, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. The patient suffered what fire officials described as a moderate injury, and was flown to a nearby sheriff's substation before continuing on to a hospital by ground ambulance.
The Riverside County Fire Department reported the rescue at 4:11 p.m., according to MyNewsLA.com. The area where the patient was found sits northeast of Pine Cove, an unincorporated mountain community perched at roughly 5,413 feet elevation, where the terrain quickly turns steep and heavily forested as it climbs toward Mount San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness. That backcountry includes demanding routes like the Marion Mountain Trail, which gains 2,300 feet over 5.25 miles before joining the Pacific Crest Trail on the approach to San Jacinto Peak.
An official CAL FIRE and Riverside County Fire Department incident report published Saturday identified the aircraft involved as RESCUE9, the Riverside County Sheriff's Aviation Unit helicopter. After hoisting the patient from the inaccessible terrain, the crew landed at the Lake Hemet Sheriff's Substation, where a ground ambulance took over to transport the patient to a hospital for treatment, per fire officials.
How the Air-to-Ground Handoff Works
The Lake Hemet Mountain Substation, situated along Highway 74, has a dedicated helipad that functions as the primary transfer point between air and ground crews during wilderness rescues across the San Jacinto range. It's the same protocol that puts injured hikers and other patients into ground ambulances rather than routing helicopters straight to a hospital.
Riverside County Sheriff's Aviation flies twin-engine Airbus helicopters under the Rescue 9 designation, aircraft built with external rescue hoists and staffed by deputies who are cross-trained as EMTs specifically for mountain operations. CAL FIRE Riverside County also keeps a Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk, known as Copter 301, based at Hemet-Ryan Airport with a 600-pound internal rescue hoist for wildland fire response and technical medical extractions in the same stretch of mountains.
A Mountain Community Built Around Remote Terrain
Pine Cove sits within the combined Idyllwild-Pine Cove census-designated place, a 13.7-square-mile enclave in the San Jacinto Mountains with a permanent population of 4,163 residents as of the 2020 Census. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department reopened and staffed its Lake Hemet Mountain Substation in December 2020 specifically to strengthen emergency response across these isolated communities, according to reporting at the time from the Idyllwild Town Crier.
Wilderness search-and-rescue efforts in the range are also backed by the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit, a volunteer nonprofit founded in 1961 that operates out of the sheriff's Hemet station and handles high-angle rope and wilderness rescues. It remains unclear whether the volunteer unit assisted on the ground during Saturday's rescue. Anyone heading into the Mount San Jacinto Wilderness northeast of Pine Cove is required to obtain a free wilderness permit from the U.S. Forest Service or California State Parks at ranger stations in Idyllwild or Stone Creek.
The identity of the patient, the specific trail or activity involved in the injury, and further details on the person's condition have not been released. Hoodline previously covered public safety and infrastructure issues in the same mountain communities, including a resolved propane leak evacuation in Pine Cove.
