Update: 3 p.m. Sunday, March 22: A Franklin Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said two of three adults who were injured in a Sugarloaf chairlift malfunction and treated at the hospital have been discharged. A third adult was transferred to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston for continued treatment.
Updated: 4:54 p.m. Saturday, March 21: This story has been updated to give an exact number of people evacuated and that inspectors are on scene to investigate the cause.
CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Seven skiers were hurt, three of whom were transported and treated at a local hospital with injuries considered non-life threatening, after chairs on a quad lift at Sugarloaf slid backwards on Saturday morning.
Emergency responders were called at 11:35 a.m. for an evacuation of the King Pine lift, which is the furthest upper lift on the east side of Sugarloaf Mountain, said Carrabassett Valley Fire Chief Courtney Knapp.
The lift was fully loaded and all those folks on the lift were rescued,” Knapp said. Evacuated were 204 skiers and riders were brought down by ski patrollers and area firefighters. Emergency personnel from the fire departments of Carrabassett Valley, Eustis, Kingfield and Farmington responded as did NorthStar EMS crews.
The evacuation took about two hours to complete and no one was injured getting the skiers and riders off the lift, Knapp said and added, “we had a great response.”
According to Ethan Austin, a spokesman for Sugarloaf, “the lift experienced a rollback,” which occurs when the chairlift travels backwards. “The rollback did not cause the lift to de-rope. The lift rolled back a distance of nine chairs,” he said.
A spokeswoman at Franklin Memorial Hopsital where the skiers were transported by Northstar EMS ambulances from Sugarloaf, “is currently treating three adults who were injured in a Sugarloaf chairlift malfunction earlier today. All have noncritical injuries and are in stable condition.”
According to Austin, the King Pine Quad is a four-passenger monocable fixed-grip quad built in 1988 and manufactured by Borvig. King Pine is 3,400 feet long with a vertical of 1,074 feet. The chair moves at a speed of 450 feet per minute and the chairs are roughly 51 feet apart. There are a total of 122 chairs on the lift, which is powered by a 400 horsepower motor. It has a transportation capacity of 2,100 skiers per hour.
Knapp said evacuating riders involves throwing a rope over the lift’s cable, pulling up a seat then lowering skiers and riders down to the ground.
On Dec. 28, 2010, a chair lift derailment at Sugarloaf Mountain sent eight to the hospital and about 150 people were rescued off the chair lift. Saturday’s incident was not a derailment, but chairs sliding backwards.
“The chairlift receives routine daily inspections for safety. Additionally, the chairlift receives weekly, monthly and yearly maintenance and testing. The lift is also inspected annually by the State of Board of Elevator and Tramway Safety,” Austin said.
The King Pine lift will remain closed at this time. The cause of the rollback remains under investigation.
An inspector from the State of Maine Board of Elevator and Tramway Safety is on site at Sugarloaf this afternoon to work with the resort in investigating the causes of today’s incident on the King Pine lift.
Thank the Lord no one was killed. Kudos to the EMS crews who answered the call.
If I may be SO bold given all the give/take/heave/ho about the Farmington budget, given that I have a dog (brother) in the fight and am now only in Franklin County for some months in the summer……….. THiS is the reason that the EMS budget is ‘what it is’. Perhaps nobody (I have no clue!!) “from Farmington” was on that chairlift. Doesn’t really matter at the end of the day “where” anybody comes from. The service they provided is what matters. AND all those people who live every day devoted to providing the town/county/regional EMS service remain my heroes. If you haven’t spent a below-zero night in the willy-wacks trying to find some fool who went hiking/snowmobiling/off-trail at a ski area, or a 90-degree day getting a broken bone off a nasty trail at Tumbledown (—-the list of foolish behavior is somewhat endless (!!!)—-), you have no right to criticize the EMS budget…………
None of this happens in a vacuum. None of this happens without tax dollars invested in equipment, training, and personnel. It is so easy to criticize and nickel/dime it to death UNTIL you are the one who requires somebody with skill, knowledge, and training to save you, people UNknown to you, OR people you love.
Just sayin’………….
Wow “Marlene”, “some fool… who went hiking, snowmobiling, or skiing”…You must live in a bubble. I’m glad its your brother doing the rescuing, of these so called “accidents”…Just Sayin
@My Opinion: “some fool who went hiking/snowmobiling, or skiing/off-trail at a ski area”.
Key word: off-trail. A rather fool-hardy thing to do.
Maybe the rescued who didn’t follow the rules should have to reimburse the “EMS” budget for the service.
Rather like having insurance if you have an accident.
To “My Opinion”………. I don’t live in a bubble at all? I live in a world where you prepare properly for the things you do.
May I assume that your are critical of the budget for Fire Rescue/EMS services based on your comments?? I have listened to those stories for a very long time!! What are you really trying to say? Perhaps these services should not be available in Farmington and Franklin County??
I would love to sit with you and maybe some people at the local EMS office (if I could convince them!) and go over ‘the rescues’ done in Franklin County over the last few years and what, for the most part, precipitated those circumstances! I have NO issue with the Sugarloaf rescue this week; it was totally an accident and what our EMS people train for and excel at 24/7/365.
MY issue is with people (“some fools”!!, as you so accurately quote me!) who hike without proper equipment and supplies, go off-trail whether hiking, skiing, snowmobiling, and generally do not act responsibly. They simply assume that SOME guy(s) will get out of his bed, leave his family, not show up at his job, and brave the subzero or 90+ degree temps to rescue this ‘wunderkind’ who’s climbing a mountain when it’s 90 degrees or skiing off-trail when it’s 25 below zero!! Without adequate planning for water, supplies, and camping equipment, these people are OFF THE CHART and need EMS staff to save their hash!! Sorry, that can kinda be spelled “F-O-O-L” to me!!!! Ya think?? Just sayin’……….
There is a very BIG difference between those mentioned above and skiers caught in that awful mess at Sugarloaf. Please……..!
You need to understand that I am ALL about rescu’ing people who are in distress! But I get really annoyed by those people who do not bother to THINK, ASSESS, and PLAN! If you simply ‘DO WHATEVER’ and wait for someone to take care of you when it all runs amuck, my sympathy is minimal ! Even being stupid get you all manner of public services by people who are trained to The Nines!! That said, I have NO clue if one is billed by the county for being stupid……….
I repeat what I said, “My Opinion”, the investment in local training, equipment, and personnel pays off. Whether those who receive those serves deserve them or not—-if they need them, they get them. I simply have a hard/frustrating time when those who are doing The Saving need to go begging to get the funding at a local level.
Just sayin’ for the second time…………