Montecito, CA--Rescue personnel form the Montecito Fire Department and Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue responded together this afternoon to help a woman who was injured while hiking.

Montecito Fire and Search & Rescue members carry victim out.

Around noon on Monday, March 14, 2011, emergency crews were alerted to a report of an injured female in her 50's who suffered an ankle injury after slipping off a rock on the Cold Springs West Fork Trail. Unable to walk, the woman’s companions call 9-1-1 to request help.

Medics from the Montecito Fire Department hiked more up the trail for more than a mile before they found the injured hiker and determined that a stretcher carryout was required due to her inability to walk.

Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue personnel arrived and assisted with transporting the stretcher down to the trail where she was transferred to AMR medics for transport to Cottage ER at approximately 2:00pm.

Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue is the all-volunteer mountain rescue unit of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department. For more information about the team and/or this incident contact SBCSAR's PIO Nelson Trichler at 805-698-0752.