New danger at waterfall is blocked emergency vehicles

HAMILTON — The struggle to prevent falling deaths at Albion Falls now includes the challenge of keeping nearby streets clear for emergency vehicles.

The city says firefighters had to thread a tangle of vehicles parked on the side of the road this weekend as they raced to the scene of a fatal fall near the popular east Mountain waterfall.

Hamilton police were called to help remove the blockage and divert traffic to ensure firefighters had a clear path to the gorge area where a 21-year-old plummeted close to 40 metres to his death and two other people also fell and were injured.

Three of four rope rescues in Hamilton this year have happened at Albion Falls.

City spokesperson Ann Lamanes said the weekend rescue effort was ultimately not delayed, but emergency officials are “concerned” about the implications of increasingly common parking snarls near the popular waterfall. Nearby streets include Mountain Brow, Mud and Arbour Road.

“Timing is of the essence in these rescues,” Lamanes said following a meeting of emergency services, conservation authority and city officials Monday to discuss safety and traffic issues at popular waterfalls.

“There is absolutely no parking on shoulders or boulevards (in those areas). We’re stepping up enforcement to try to reinforce that message.”

For example, Lamanes said officials are discussing the feasibility of towing illegally parked vehicles if the risky parking trend continues.

The city has already handed out more than 500 tickets — about $18,000 in fines — as part of a new bylaw crackdown on illegal weekend parking around waterfalls, but so far most enforcement has happened in Greensville and other areas around Spencer Gorge.

Frequent rope-rescue calls and similar concerns about emergency access spurred the Hamilton Conservation Authority to close its Webster’s and Tew’s falls parking lots on summer weekends this year and introduce a visitor shuttle instead.

The change is meant to help control visitor numbers to the ecologically sensitive Spencer Gorge and dissuade parking problems at or near the falls.

So far, there have been no rope-rescue calls to Webster’s or Tew’s falls this year.

But those two waterfalls, combined with Albion Falls and the Devil’s Punch Bowl, account for more than 40 per cent of all firefighter rope rescues in the past 10 years.

City risk management officials say the only two active serious injury claims against the city related to waterfall incidents both involve Albion Falls.

The city is considering more signs, an education campaign, mapping problem areas, towing offending vehicles and more fences. The fire department rejected the idea of a rescue fee, fearing people would stop calling for help.