indian falls

A one-car accident is reported on Route 77 just north of the Thruway overpass. A person is injured and bleeding. Pembroke and Indians Falls fire departments are responding along with Mercy medics.

UPDATE 2:22 p.m.: The vehicle has minor damage. There was air-bag deployment, according to a responder.

Members of Genesee County's rope rescue team trained at Indian Falls -- the site of many such real-life rescues over the years -- with a new rope system, called a Vortex.

The $25,000 system (including LED lighting) features a more sophisticated, and more effective and efficient, pulley system, making it easier to keep the ropes clear of obstructions and requiring less exertion of force to raise a patient lifter, making it easier for a medic to accompany the patient up the side of the cliff. 

Top photo: Christina Marinaccio and Jamie Call, the first team to descend and ascend with the new system. Marinaccio and Call are both city firefighters and volunteers (with Le Roy and Stafford, respectively).

To find out how you can do interesting things like this, help save lives and serve your community, visit ReadyGenesee.com.

A motor-vehicle accident is reported in front of Pembroke High School at 8750 Alleghany Road. Law enforcement on scene says one person may have a concussion. Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments are responding, along with Darien ambulance.

(Photo: Tyler Tomasik, right, with friends Chad Buziak, Alyssa Kranz and Katailyn Armstrong.)

A rope rescue is needed for a man who jumped off the north bank of Indian Falls behind the Log Cabin Restaurant. People there are unable to get him out. His unjuries are unknown. He is conscious and alert. The location is 1227 Gilmore Road, Corfu. Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments, Mercy medics and the Rope Rescue Team are called to the scene.

UPDATE 4 p.m.: The male is a teenager who was rescued by his best friend and transported by Mercy medics to UMMC for evaluation at the request of his parents. He had no complaints of aches or pains.

UPDATE 4:18: The rescuer is 19-year-old Lancaster resident Tyler Tomasik. Here's what he told Howard at the scene: "We were just walking down by the water. He slipped in. Had to save him. We were right underneath the falls. Like there's a cliff where you drop off and we were underneath it, like watching the falls, and he slipped on this wet rock and just went under. I didn't know what to do. I tried grabbing a stick to pull him out. That didn't work so I just reached my arm in and grabbed him. I just kept reaching in."

Asked about whether they had jumped off the falls, he said they have heard about it but had not done so. But when his friend just slipped into the water it was "a little scary."

Once out of the water, his friend hugged him and told him he loved him and said "thanks." Tyler told him "That's what friends are for. You gotta stick up for each other."

A man is down in the water, bleeding from the head, in the Indian Falls at 1227 Gilmore Road, Corfu. Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments and Mercy medics are responding. The Water Rescue Team is called for a possible rope rescue. The location is outside the Indian Falls Log Cabin Restaurant.

UPDATE 6:26 p.m.: The emergency rope rescue response is cancelled per Pembroke command.

UPDATE 6:45 p.m.: Howard at the scene says a state trooper told him a man got a small cut on the head. That's it. "It was nothing." The assignment is back in service.

A 22-year-old Buffalo resident is in critical condition at ECMC after an overnight accident on Route 77 in Indian Falls that required volunteer firefighters to extricate him from his vehicle.

Luis A. Martinez-Morales was airlifted by Mercy Flight following the 12:10 a.m. collision at the intersection of Route 77 and Indian Falls Road.

The Genesee County Sheriff's Office is investigating the crash.

The Buffalo-man allegedly failed to stop at the intersection. He was westbound on Indian Falls Road. His car was struck by a northbound 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe driving by Dixie Woodworth, 53, of Maple Avenue, Lyndonville.

The Honda Accord driven by Martinez-Morales and the Santa Fe both skidded off the west shoulder of Route 77 just north of Gabbey Road.

A passenger in the Accord, 22-year-old Brian Ortiz-Guevara, of Puerto Rico, sustained minor injuries. He was taken by Mercy EMS to ECMC for evaluation.

Woodworth also sustained minor injuries and was transported by the Darien ambulance to ECMC.

The Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments responded to the scene.

The investigation is being conducted by Deputy Rich Schildwaster and Sgt. Ron Meides. Charges are pending. Alcohol is not considered a factor in the crash.

(Initial Report)

An accident with injuries is reported at Route 77 and Gabbey Road, Pembroke.

Extrication is required and Mercy Flight is dispatched.

A landing zone is being set up at the Methodist church in Indian Falls. Darien's ambulance also dispatched.

Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments have responded.

UPDATE 12:34 a.m.: Mercy Flight has landed.

UPDATE 12:36 a.m.: Darien ambulance in route to the church.

UPDATE 12:47 a.m.: Mercy Flight transporting patient to ECMC.

A two-car accident, unknown injuries, is reported at the intersection of Gabbey and Alleghany roads. Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments are responding along with Mercy medics.

A caller at the Log Cabin Restaurant requests assistance for a distressed person in the water.

A first-responder reports the person is in about a foot of water and "pretty beat up."

The county's rope rescue team is requested to the scene.

Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments dispatched along with Mercy EMS.

UPDATE 6:03 p.m.: A chief request a check on availability of Mercy Flight.

UPDATE 6:08 p.m.: Mercy Flight #9 out of Buffalo dispatched. Landing zone will be the Indian Falls church.

UPDATE 6:11 p.m.: A normal rescue on the northside won't work. The victim is on the southside and the water is moving swiftly. A rescuer has reached the victim.

UPDATE 7:16 p.m.: The patient is in stable condition and Mercy Flight was dispatched as a precautionary measure. The patient became submerged, then came up from the water, clung to a rock, then was pulled under again by the current. He re-emerged about 50 feet down stream and was able to swim to the south bank. He showed no physical signs of injury.

On a cloud-shrouded Memorial Day afternoon in Indian Falls, the folds in the fabric of history were visible in a short service that honored one of Pembroke's own fallen Civil War soldiers.

A headstone for Conrad Litt, a German immigrant who probably joined the Army so his family could have 100 acres of land after the war, was dedicated in a service conducted by members of Colonel John B. Weber Camp No. 44 and the Weber Guard, Sons of Veterans Reserve.

The spot chosen for the marker is next to those of his parents and other family members in the Old Indian Falls Cemetery. The location is at the rise of the hill in the southwest corner of the graveyard. There's an opening in the tree line that overlooks a lush valley. 

Clifford Anderson, one of the Litt Family ancestors, who now lives in West Seneca, purchased the headstone from the Veteran's Administration. He likes the idea that Conrad Litt's grave overlooks that idyllic valley that will become a national veterans cemetery.

"His spirit will look out over his fellow soldiers here, on this hill," Anderson said.

Conrad Litt enlisted in the 100th New York Volunteer Infantry, 2nd Brigade, Company C., on October 24, 1861 as a private. The 2nd Brigade was known as the “Eagle Brigade,” which was sponsored by the Buffalo Board of Trade.

Litt participated in the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, where more than half of his regiment was killed or wounded.

The Pembroke resident died in action July 18, 1863 during the Union’s night assault on Fort Wagner, Morris Island, S.C., when he was struck in the breast and died instantly.

The Second Battle for Fort Wagner was dramatized in the movie "Glory," which is about the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first military regiment in the Army comprised entirely of African-Americans, mostly freed slaves. The 54th led the nighttime charge on Fort Wagner, suffering heavy casualties, and though Fort Wagner never fell, the manner in which the men acquitted themselves led to more freed slaves being allowed to enlist. These black regiments were a significant factor, President Lincoln felt, in the Union winning the war.

Buffalo native John B. Weber enlisted in the Army Aug. 1, 1861 as a private and quickly rose through the ranks, attaining colonel before his 21st birthday. His first command, granted September 19, 1863, two months after the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, was the 89th Regiment, designated "18th Infantry, Corps d'Afrique." It was a regiment of freed slaves. Weber turned down a command of 44th Regiment to lead the 89th. He resigned later after his men were reassigned to another outfit and promised replacements, more freed slaves, were not available. He returned to Buffalo and eventually was elected to Congress.

Litt's remains were never recovered for a proper burial, as the fighting at Fort Wagner continued for another month by laying siege to take control of the rebel-held fort and battery, which was the key to entering Charleston Harbor and the Union reclaiming of Ft. Sumter, where the first shot of the War Between the States opened formal hostilities in 1861. 

Anderson learned of Litt and the cemetery where his family was buried while researching his family tree. In the process, he came across a book containing 25 of Litt's letters home. The book, which also contains the Civil War letters of Litt's childhood friend, also of Pembroke and fellow soldier, Sidney Lake, "I Take My Pen in My Hand."

"I came across these letters he wrote and I wept reading them," Anderson said. "I'm a vet myself and I would like to do him an honor, at least put a marker here for him. His body is not here, but I feel like his spirit has come home now."

The dedication ceremony comes 150 years after what some historians consider the first Memorial Day, organized in Charleston, S.C., May 1, 1865, by a group of freed slaves to honor the Union soldiers who helped secure their emancipation. The first nationally recognized Decoration Day was May 30, 1868. The date was supposedly chosen because it would be a time when flowers in all parts of the nation would be in bloom and the graves of fallen soldiers were to be decorated with flowers.

Flowers decorated Litt's marker yesterday.

For Michael Erb, who belongs to three Civil War reenactment groups, including the Weber group, and is himself a military veteran, taking part in services that honor the Civil War dead is important because the Civil War is a critical turning point in the nation's history.

"The Civil War was America's biggest war," Erb said. "It changed our country forever, you know. We were kind of a disunified country, different states going different ways, and all the sudden after the war, we were all one nation. Oliver Wendell Holmes said it was a terrible war, many people and soldiers died in that war, but look at what we got from it. We're a better country afterward. We're a unified country. Today, we're the only Superpower. It's a time in history that our whole country should remember."

A structure fire is reported on Alleghany Road at the "Emerson Building," Pembroke, consignment store. It is believed to be electrical in nature. Power is off. National Grid advised. Traffic will be stopped at Route 77 (Alleghany Road) and Phelps Roads, Indian Falls. Fire departments from Pembroke, East Pembroke, Indian Falls, Alabama, Oakfield, Corfu, Darien and Town of Batavia are called to respond.

UPDATE 1:20 a.m.: City of Batavia's first platoon is called to its headquarters. The structure on fire is described as located between a house and a barn and they are "using the consignment store as the address."

UPDATE 1:27 a.m.: The property owner has a generator near the house and is told to come in and shut it down, too. "We've got nothing (firefighting capability) on the backside of this and I need something on the front." The response is they are awaiting "more interiors" (crew) to the scene.

UPDATE 1:29 a.m.: A Crittenden tanker is asked to start to the scene in non-emergency mode.

UPDATE 1:38 a.m.: Command asks that the crew from Newstead be told to bring in a thermal imaging camera. Establishing a draft to charge one or more of the water lines appears to be difficult.

UPDATE 1:39 a.m.: Elba is asked to stand by in East Pembroke's fire hall. A 65-gallon drum near the fire scene has caused firefighters some pause, but the owner reports it is empty. However, there IS a full or partially full propane tank inside a building, he reports. Both lines that are charged "are pushing water," says a firefighter. The actual address is given as 7887 Alleghany Road.

UPDATE 1:45 a.m.: "We are having an issue with the hydrant here, and we're changing locations," says a firefighter. Dispatch says the fire is reported to be knocked down (under control).

UPDATE 1:53 a.m.: Google Maps show the location as north of Housekneckt Road, well south of Schafer Potato Farms. "It looks like the main part of the fire is out," a firefighter tells command.

UPDATE 1:56 a.m.: A secondary draft has been established as they continue to squelch the blaze.

UPDATE 2:12 a.m.: They are doing overhaul at the site. There will be no further posts on this incident unless warranted.

A car is on its roof on the westbound Thruway at mile marker 400. It's in the median. Unknown injuries. Pembroke and Indian Falls fire and Mercy medics are responding.

UPDATE 7:03 a.m.: A fire chief on scene reports everyone is out of the vehicle. But there's a language barrier and so the issue of whether there are injuries remains unclear.

UPDATE 7:08 a.m.: A responder on scene reports the location is actually between mile markers 401 and 402.

UPDATE 7:32 a.m.: The location is mile marker 401.8. The assignment is back in service.

Fire police from East Pembroke and Indian Falls are called to shut down eastbound traffic on Akron Road at Wyman Road. There is a jackknifed tractor-trailer blocking the roadway. Law enforcement is on scene.

A quick response by the East Pembroke Fire Department helped save a house on Indian Falls Road this afternoon when a fire destroyed a detached garage and heat from the fire was causing the siding of the house to melt.

Chief Don Newton said all of the department's trucks rolled within minutes of the alarm.

When Newton arrived on scene driving one of those engines, the garage was already gone. 

One firefighter described it as "rolling flames."

Newton said crews deployed hand lines and acted quickly to protect the house and knock down the fire.

"It is a great save to the house," Newton said. "These guys are awesome. This is what we train for. These guys do a hell of a job for me. I can't thank them enough for being here during the day. Middle of the day, it's tough to get people out and all the units that responded here from all the different departments, I can't thank enough for them being out here."

The house, at 2023 Indian Falls Road, suffered significant heat damage, but no apparent structural damage.

County records list the property owner as Timothy Franclemont.

"It was a good save on the garage as far as I'm concerned," Newton said. "There were a lot of chemicals in the garage, oils, gases, that were burning fiercely, running out of the doors with water on fire."

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

No injuries were reported.

Assisting East Pembroke were Indian Falls, Oakfield, Pembroke, Darien, Elba and Alabama.

(Initial Post)

A fully involved garage fire with exposures to other property is reported at 2023 Indian Falls Road. Indian Falls and East Pembroke fire departments are responding. The call has gone to a second alarm. Oakfield, Pembroke, Darien, Elba and Alabama are also called in and Town of Batavia is asked to stand by in East Pembroke Fire Hall.

UPDATE 1 p.m.: Corfu Fire Police are to shut down Indian Falls Road at Route 77.

UPDATE 1:19 p.m.: Howard at the scene reports flames are no longer showing. The garage is a total loss and the nearby house "has significant heat damage (outside)."

Heavy black, stinky smoke is reported at 1641 Indian Falls Road. It is said to be caused by burning tires. Indian Falls Fire Department is responding.

UPDATE Thursday: The resident called and said this was a false report by another resident in the area. There were no tires burning.  It was just brush.

Deb Hill's chocolate lab Maggie has been missing since yesterday.

Deb said Maggie may have been scared of yesterday morning's weather and tried to follow her husband to work.

In the Indian Falls, Route 77, Phelps Road area.

She has a silver chin.

UPDATE: A reader has helped reunite Deb and Maggie.

A pedestrian is down and unconscious in the parking lot of the Flying J Travel Center after being struck and injured by a vehicle. Mercy Flight is on standby. Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments are responding.

UPDATE 12:21 p.m.: Mercy Flight will not be needed.

An accident with five injured people is reported on the westbound Thruway at mile marker 399.9.

Pembroke and Indian Fall fire departments and Mercy medics are responding.

UPDATE 7:01 p.m.: Traffic is backed up as a result of the accident. At least four of the occupants are said to be probable sign-offs.

UPDATE 7:22 p.m.: One child is being transported to Women and Children's Hospital in Buffalo. The other medics are back in service.

Indian Falls Methodist Church hosted one of our county's great annual community events today, their strawberry social, which includes a chicken BBQ and an auction.  Once again, a big turnout for this popular event.