Crews rescue missing teen sledders

WALES, N.Y. (WIVB) - In the southtowns, things went downhill quickly for two teenage sledders Thursday evening. A group of teens had gone sledding following the snowstorm, and a search began after two of the teens, who are 15 and 18, became separated from the rest of the group.

The teens left a friend’s house in the Town of Wales Thursday afternoon, to find a hill for sledding. A parent called 9-1-1 when two of the teens didn’t return.

Town of Wales fire volunteers and Erie County Sheriff’s searchers looked the missing teens, and reached them by cell phone. Rescuers determined the teens were near a creek, and told them to follow it upstream.

Wales Fire Assistant Chief Bill Swyers said, “We took two crews. We had a crew at Hunter's Creek Road, and we had a crew up here. We followed the trails we know best to get down to the creek, followed the creek bank, they were in the creek bank.”

The called out to find each other, and had paramedics check the teens out, and determined they will be okay.

Rescued sledder Jacob Welkey said, “They were great, they were really helpful, I really appreciated it.”

The assistant fire chief says the teens helped themselves get rescued, by keeping cell phones with them and following directions provided by emergency crews.

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