Young Hiker Falls From Cliff

A 13-year-old Laguna Beach boy tumbled down a sheer 100-foot cliff in the Arch Beach Heights canyon area shortly after dusk Monday, suffering apparently serious injuries and triggering a tense aerial rescue effort involving a helicopter from the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, fire officials said.

Trevor Stimson, 13, was in serious but stable condition in Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, where he was still undergoing emergency-room examination late Monday, a hospital spokeswoman said. Laguna Beach fire officials said he appeared to have suffered broken bones and may have lost consciousness briefly in the fall.

Fire Capt. Joe McClure said the boy, who lives in nearby Bluebird Canyon, apparently had been hiking with two other boys in brushy terrain near Summit Drive and Katella Street around 6 p.m.

“I think they were just on a hike, it got dark on them, and they had gotten into a bad area where there was a cliff,” McClure said. “He didn’t slip, he actually fell off about a 100-foot drop.”

McClure estimated that it took the boy’s companions about 30 minutes to walk out of the area and call for help.

Rescue crews from the Laguna Beach and Orange County fire departments treated the injured boy where he had fallen, in bushes and soft sand, before easing him onto the stretcher that was lowered from the hovering helicopter.