Costa Mesa rescuers retrieve victim who fell from overpass into flood control channel

Members of the Costa Mesa Fire Department performed a low angle rescue Tuesday afternoon to retrieve a man who’d fallen from a Paularino Avenue overpass into a flood control channel, authorities reported.

Capt. Joe Noceti confirmed rescuers were called to the scene shortly after 4:30 p.m. where a man of unspecified age had fallen from the street about 15 or 20 feet to the concrete channel below.

Cars drive on a Paularino Avenue overpass near where a man fell some 15-20 feet Tuesday into a concrete flood control channel.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Responders used an aerial ladder as a high point from which they used a crane to reach the area where the victim had fallen and pull him from the channel to safety above.

Noceti said the man was transported to a nearby trauma center, where he was listed Tuesday in serious condition. It is unclear whether the incident was an accident but, with rescuers working quickly, the retrieval was completed within a matter of minutes.

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