Mountain rescue lasts seven hours

after more than 7 hours. fire officials say a 49-year old man was hiking with a group when he injured his leg. the group was hiking the one- thousand steps trail near stanton and exaclibur. abc-7 reporter julio-cesar chavez was there as crews worked to rescue the man. he’s live with the latest. evan, josie the fire department got a call about an injured hiker a little after noon a group had been hiking on the west side of the franklin mountains when a 49-yearold man injured his leg. they were able to call emergency services with a phone, but ended up having to use mirrors to communicate with rescuers. shot of ambulance a long hike finally comes to an end– 33 combined search and rescue crew, six border patrol agents, and even the red cross came together saturday to rescued an injured hiker in the franklin mountains. we were dispatched at 12:13 p.m. and he came down from the mountain at about 7:07, so about seven hours. el paso fire department spokesman carlos briano says the man was located and treated around noon–but it was the rescue that lasted hours. that’s because the hikers were several miles off the one thousand steps trail in treacherous terrain. the injured hiker couldn’t move at all. we had to descend with him in a basket forcing crews to be very strategic–moving slowly– less than 200 feet at a time because of his injuries. we didn’t want to have further injuries or have a comsar rescue team member injured briano says it was one of the longest rescues in recent memory, second only to an overnight search last year. door closing the hiker was taken by the fire department to a local hospital. officials say he doesn’t have life- threatening injuries everyone should remember , if you’re going hiking please take enough water with you, no less than a gallon per person and don’t go off trail, it’s easier to get lost and hurt. taking a live look tonight