Firefighters pluck him off log in Hudson after following cries for help 
 
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
The Times Union (Albany, New York)
Copyright 2006 The Times Union
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
 
GLENS FALLS — City firefighters plucked a man clinging to a log from the Hudson River Thursday night by following his screams for help, officials said.
The man called the Warren County Sheriff's Department on his cellphone at 7:37 p.m., telling a dispatcher he had tumbled off an embankment into the Hudson River around the Feeder Dam, Glens Falls Assistant Fire Chief James Schrammel said. The dive team was called out but later canceled, Schrammel said.

"We don't know for sure how he got into the water," Schrammel said. He was unsure of his condition, but said firefighters told him the victim was semi-alert and screaming when he was pulled from the water.

Schrammel said the rescue lasted about 30 minutes. The Glens Falls Police Department also responded to the scene.

Using a thermal imaging camera, Schrammel said, he eventually spotted the man about 75 feet above the falls near the bridge that connects Glens Falls to South Glens Falls. Rescue personnel then followed his screams, leading them along a bike trail off the Feeder Canal Trail.

As they got closer, firefighters Jeff Hirsch and Bob Shine spied the victim holding on to a log, Schrammel said.

Hirsch mounted a submerged picnic table near the shoreline, grabbed the man, who was about five feet out, and together with Shine pulled him to safety, said Schrammel.

Rescue crews then used a stretcher, known as a Stoke's basket, to climb up the embankment, before the man was transported to Glens Falls Hospital.