LOS ANGELES, CA – A man was critically injured after falling about 30 feet from a cliff at Point Fermin in San Pedro early Sunday, and Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter crews rescued him by hoist, according to the department.
The first LAFD unit arrived at 3:50 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, at 1 Point Fermin, according to an LAFD alert for the incident, which carries the number INC#0252. The alert places the fall in the area known as Sunken City.
The department described the injured person as an adult man. He was taken to a local trauma center in critical condition.
Fire crews reach Sunken City at 3:50 a.m.
The first arriving unit reported that an adult man had fallen approximately 30 feet from the cliff at Point Fermin in the Sunken City area, the LAFD alert says. The alert is timed at 3:50 a.m., in the dark hours before sunrise.
Point Fermin sits on the San Pedro coastline in the Harbor area of the city of Los Angeles. The LAFD alert lists the response address as 1 Point Fermin.
The alert was issued as an incident notice while the rescue was in progress. It describes the operation in the present tense and gives the man’s condition as critical.
Helicopter hoist used to reach the man
According to the alert, LAFD Air Operations was conducting a hoist operation to rescue the man and transport him to a local trauma center. A hoist operation lifts a patient off the ground by cable from a hovering helicopter, a method used when a person cannot easily be reached or carried out by land.
The department did not say in the alert how many crew members took part in the rescue. It also did not list the other LAFD units that responded.
What LAFD Air Operations does
The LAFD’s Air Operations page says the section’s multi-mission profile includes brush fire suppression, air ambulance transport, high-rise fire response and hoist rescues. The department’s helicopter fleet consists of five medium-duty and two light-duty helicopters.
The page says the section is staffed around the clock by a crew of pilots, aeromedics, helitac members and command staff. Air Operations is based at Fire Station 114 on the grounds of Van Nuys Airport.
Earlier cliff rescues at Sunken City
The LAFD has issued earlier alerts for cliff rescues in the same part of San Pedro. On Nov. 7, 2025, at 11:07 p.m., the department reported in a cliff rescue alert that a 25-year-old man was in critical condition after falling approximately 30 feet over a cliff in the area of Sunken City. That alert also describes a helicopter hoist to a trauma center.
On April 5, 2026, at 8:41 a.m., the department issued another cliff rescue alert for Point Fermin in Council District 15. It said LAFD air, land and marine assets were on scene attempting to reach the patient and create a rescue strategy. A later alert for that same incident was titled as a fatality.
Nothing in the alerts connects either of those incidents to Sunday’s rescue.
LAPD Harbor Division handles the circumstances
The LAFD alert refers all questions about the circumstances of the fall to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Harbor Division, under incident number 0682. The fire department’s alert addresses the medical response and rescue only.
As of Sunday morning, officials had not released the man’s name or age, the cause of the fall or any update on his condition.
Man remains in critical condition
The man was in critical condition at a trauma center when the alert was issued. The LAPD Harbor Division has not announced the findings of its review of the fall.
