Firefighters rescue man stuck on ledge

A man was injured Thursday evening but escaped a more serious fate when he became stranded on a dam ledge after falling down a steep bank of the Nashua River.

The man, who was using crutches, fell about 30 feet from the embankment behind the city library, landing on a granite ledge directly across from the outside deck of Margarita’s Mexican Restaurant, Deputy Fire Chief Steve Galipeau said.

Nine firefighters responded to Pearson Street, some of whom rappelled down the embankment to rescue the man, who was conscious and in obvious pain.

“He was complaining of hip and leg pain,” Galipeau said.

The rescue effort took about 35 minutes, Galipeau said, describing how firefighters had to secure the middle-aged man tightly in a rescue or “stokes” basket to keep his body from jostling around on the trip up the wall.

Rockingham Ambulance crews took the man to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center.

“It is not a place you want to fall,” said Margarita’s manager Charles Smith, who arrived at work to find customers and staff on the deck watching the action across the way.

“But he was lucky enough not to have gone in the water, because he would have been swept away.”