LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A man hunting in the remote Bartlett Springs area on Thursday died after falling into a ravine.
Cal Fire personnel found the man's body Thursday evening about 60 feet down an embankment off of Bartlett Springs Road, three miles east of Bartlett Springs, according to Northshore Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Pat Brown.
Originally, Northshore and Cal Fire firefighters were dispatched at around 6:30 p.m. on the report of a vehicle down a cliff.
Brown said they had received confusing information, some of it resulting from the language barrier they encountered in communicating with the family of the man, who was Vietnamese.
The family had been in the area hunting squirrels when the man fell down into the ravine, according to Brown.
Cal Fire's Copter 104 and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office's “Henry 1” helicopter searched for the man from the air, flying from Pinnacle Rock to Indian Valley, Brown said.
Radio reports had indicated the pilots were becoming concerned because of the fast-approaching darkness and were trying to locate an aircraft with forward looking infrared technology to look for the man in the darkness.
It was the crew of a Cal Fire engine from the Leesville station that found the man's body just off the road near the Bartlett Creek area, not far from the location of the old Bartlett Springs Resort and bottling facility, Brown said.
Shortly after the man was found at about 7:15 p.m., medic units were dismissed and the coroner was advised, based on reports from the scene.
Brown and some Cal Fire units remained on location until last Thursday night as they waited for the coroner to arrive, with a mortuary summoned to the scene just before 10 p.m., according to radio reports.
Additional details about the incident were not immediately available late Thursday.
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