A 55-year-old man was rescued the morning of Saturday, September 19, from Upper Paugussett State Park after a hiking trip turned into a medical emergency.

Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, a paramedic, Newtown Underwater Search And Rescue, and firefighters from Hawleyville, Hook & Ladder, and Sandy Hook were dispatched at 6:55 am, initially to the Pond Brook state boat launch on Hanover Road. Hook & Ladder Chief Engineer Mike Aurelia was the commanding officer on the incident.

The injured hiker, who was part of a group of five, had started the hike from the state boat launch at the intersection of Hanover and Pond Brook roads. He and the others were on one of the state forest’s blue trails, when he fell and dislocated his hip.

Aurelia did not know if the patient, nor any of the other hikers, live in Newtown.

The group had reportedly been hoping to view, from the Newtown side of Lake Lillinonah, eagles at the Shepaug Eagle Viewing area in Southbury.

Aurelia set up a command post at Hanover and Silver City roads. He was joined there by members of the three responding fire companies.

NUSAR sent a boat toward the area where the hikers were reportedly waiting. Firefighters also began heading on foot toward the location of the group in the woods.

While first responders were assembling, a private boat on the lake located the group. The operator of the boat picked up the injured hiker and transported him to the town boat launch at the end of Hanover Road.

The ambulance crew had moved to that location, at the end of Hanover Road. Joined there by a paramedic, those first responders were ready for the patient when the private boat arrived with him.

By approximately 8:30 am, the injured hiker was being transported to a hospital.

Aurelia said the four other hikers “walked out on their own.”