Trapped paraglider rescued from power lines in California


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OLIVEHURST, Calif. (AP) — A paraglider spent three hours trapped in power lines before being rescued in northern California.

The paraglider, who was not immediately identified, was facing the ground with the wires as his only support when first responders arrived Wednesday night, according to officials with the Olivehurst Fire Department. Olivehurst is about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Sacramento.

He got stuck while trying to land at the Yuba County airport during a training exercise, officials said. No major injuries were reported.

Power was cut to the surrounding area for a few hours while crews worked to save the man, authorities said.

“The difficulty was making sure that the lines were de-energized to make sure that our firefighters were safe before we could make patient contact,” said Battalion Chief Randy York.

“Letting him know to stay in contact with the aircraft and not to reach out and touch us so that the aircraft stayed still,” York said. “He’s exhausted but all his vitals seem to be stable."

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