On Tuesday, September 3, at about 9:40 pm, the Curry County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from Gold Beach resident, thirty-year-old Paul Heim reporting that he had fallen into a creek bed and possibly had broken his ankle. Heim said he was about two miles up Abe’s Creek behind a locked gate which is about eight miles east of Gold Beach off North Bank Rogue River Road. Heim stated that he was just about out of service on his phone before the phone battery died. Heim did say that he had called some friends to help him but they could not find him.
The Curry County Sheriff’s SAR team was paged out to respond to the area long with Sheriff’s Deputies. Cal-Ore Life Flight Ambulance crew was asked to respond to the area and stage until SAR could locate Heim. The Cedar Valley North Bank Fire Department arrived to assist in the search as well.
At about 10:42 pm, Deputies made voice contact with Heim about a mile east of North Bank Rogue River Road in the Abe’s Creek drainage. The drainage was very steep and brushy and it took SAR members about a half hour to reach Heim and assess his injuries. SAR members relayed that Heim had built a fire which was a concern due to the high fire danger. Additional SAR members and Cedar Valley North Bank Fire crew cut a trail to the creek bed and carried in ropes and stokes. First responders used an air splint to immobilize Heim’s injured leg and then secured him in a stokes to be carried out. SAR was able to get Heim back to the vehicles and taken back down to the gate where Cal-Ore ground ambulance was standing by.
On Wednesday, September 4th, at about 1:10 am, almost four hours after Heim had called 911, he was released to Cal-Ore Life Flight and transported to Curry General Hospital. The landowners were contacted and stated Heim did not have permission to be on their property and wished to file trespass charges on Heim. Deputies will be contacting Heim to issue him citations for Criminal Trespass onto Private property and also South Coast Lumber property.
