Woman rescued from cliff

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 27, 2026

A South End woman sustained minor injuries falling partway down a cliff on March 21.

A crew of eight from South Whidbey Fire/EMS arrived on scene at around 12:30 p.m. and found the woman about 20 feet down a 150-foot cliff near Harbor View Drive in Langley. Her husband called emergency services after she fell over the cliff’s edge near their home on a bluff, according to Battalion Chief Joe Burbank.

Burbank, among the first to arrive, thought the rescue would be simple. While a thicket of blackberry bushes prevented her from falling further, the height of the cliff and the woman’s instability made Burbank worried she might plunge to her death right before the crew’s eyes. He described the cliff as having a “sheer … drop-off.”

“I’ve been doing this 28 years and I think that is the most anxiety I’ve ever had on a call,” Burbank said.

Firefighter and EMT Chris Turner descended from the cliff’s edge with a rope rescue system to reach the woman, but she began to slip in the process of her rescue, according to a release. Turner had to calm the woman down before he could help her into a harness. Doing so proved difficult with the bushes’ thorns, Burbank explained; the harness caught on “every snag possible.”

Burbank recalled it taking three to five minutes for Turner to secure the woman in the harness and praised his levelheadedness.

“He did a phenomenal job of just saying, ‘Hey, I’m here, I’ve got you,’” Burbank said. “I don’t think he necessarily had that control yet, but he was able to convey it to her that he had control of the situation to calm her down.”

Returning to safety meant Turner had to instruct the “distraught” woman on where to step as they scaled the cliff and the crew hoisted them up, according to the battalion chief. Burbank added that the woman was “physically and mentally exhausted” after being rescued.

The release stated that she suffered only minor lacerations from the blackberry bushes.