A fire district along the border cut through the wall Wednesday to rescue a Mexican man who fell trying to illegally enter the U.S.
Volunteers with the Arivaca Fire District stepped in after the man had been lying there with a broken ankle for nearly 24 hours.
"He was doing a lot better, but still had gone over 18 hours with an open fracture," Fire Chief Tangye Beckham said. "My concern was him losing circulation to the extremity and infection setting in."
Beckham was called to the scene by border volunteers. She says since the man fell on the Mexican side of the wall, border patrol was unable to assist.
She made the call to cut the fence when they weren't getting a quick response from Mexico. Beckham said she has dealt with many people with injuries from falls who land on the U.S. side, but this situation was a first.
“Several attempts were made to contact the Mexican authorities and that’s what we were waiting for, but they decided to not take any action," Beckham said. "In my 20 years as a firefighter, I’ve never had anything like that occur.”
Chief Beckham says the man was transported to a Tucson hospital and treated.
She hopes better protocols for helping people who fall on the Mexican side of the wall can come from this incident.
