Boy, 9, falls from cliff at Fort Ross

A 9-year-old boy who fell onto the jagged cliffs at the edge of the Pacific Ocean near Fort Ross State Historic Park was transported to Children’s Hospital Oakland on Sunday with head injuries, emergency dispatchers said.

Authorities said the boy was visiting the park with his family, and was playing near a coastal trail when he fell an estimated 40 feet onto the cliffs. He started to climb back up the rocky slope and managed to get about halfway before falling another ?20 feet, according to dispatchers.

“I heard that the family was having a picnic and the boy wandered near the cliff and fell over,” said Sylvia Murphy, who relayed reports of the incident that she heard from the park’s visitor center, where she was working when the boy fell.

Murphy said she heard that the family was of Russian heritage, and they came to visit the former Russian coastal colony that thrived in the early 1800s.

“Russians come here because it’s so important to their history,” Murphy said.

It remained unclear Sunday night how the boy reached safety. Emergency responders said they received the call for help at 1:43 p.m. and arrived on the scene at about 2 p.m. Both Henry 1, the Sheriff’s Office helicopter, and a REACH medical helicopter responded to the incident. When rescuers arrived, the boy was lying near a picnic area at the park.

“We were on routine air patrol when we heard that somebody fell down onto the beach,” said Henri Boustany, a deputy sheriff with the helicopter rescue crew. “We didn’t have to bring him up when we got there. It sounds like some other people, maybe civilians, assisted.”

Boustany said Henry 1 offered medical assistance before the boy was airlifted to the hospital.

Boustany and Murphy said state parks rangers and local fire crews also assisted in the rescue.

In November, 4-year-old Sebastion Johnson tumbled more than 200 feet off a Bodega Head cliff. Johnson spent months being treated for multiple injuries at Children’s Hospital Oakland before being released in January.

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.