Two Rescues And Probable Drowning On Same Weekend

On the evening of Saturday, July 18th, park communications received an emergency call from a man who said that he was stranded on the face of the coastal cliffs below Battery Crosby. Park rangers, Park Police officers and Presidio Fire Department personnel were dispatched to the scene and determined that he was in fact stranded and in need of rescue. The man, identified as Joseph Winslow of Mission, Kansas, had entered an area of the beach that was closed due to its hazardous cliffs. Park personnel set up a high-angle rigging system and lowered a rescuer to his location. Winslow was placed in a harness and lowered to the beach without incident. Later that evening, dispatch received a call from the Coast Guard reporting that two people were stranded on a cliff below Bird Rock overlook in the Marin Headlands. Supervisory ranger Pat Norton assumed incident command and requested assistance from Presidio Fire and on-duty rangers. Once on scene, the Coast Guard reported that there were three people stranded on the cliff, one a two-year-old boy. Due to the high tide, impending darkness and heavy coastal fog, Norton requested air support from the Coast Guard. Personnel from the 47-foot rescue boat concurred and a Coast guard helicopter responded. All three were successfully rescued. On the next day, July 19th, Ocean Beach lifeguards heard radio traffic regarding a man being dragged out of the water onto the beach. Lifeguards, rangers and San Francisco emergency personnel responded to stairwell four on Ocean Beach. Lifeguards found an off-duty nurse performing CPR on the man. The guards continued CPR and provided other emergency care until additional emergency personnel arrived on scene. An AED was used, but a “no shock” was indicated. Witnesses saw the man standing on his surfboard, but said that he then collapsed and fell off the board and that waves began pushing him towards shore. The man was transported to a San Francisco hospital, where he was pronounced dead. USPP detectives are continuing the investigation; cause of death is unknown at this time.