A man chasing a wayward soccer ball was rescued Tuesday after slipping on a slick patch of algae growing in the riverbed under a bridge in Newhall, suffering what appeared to be a broken ankle.
The rescue happened shortly after 9:40 a.m. when a man in the area of 15th Street and Railroad Avenue tried to retrieve a soccer ball that ended up in the creek wash.
Paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, responding from Fire Station 73 on Railroad just south of 15th Street, got to the injured man within a minute of receiving the call, Fire Department Inspector Sal Alvarado said.
Initially, firefighters were dispatched to a call reporting an injury suffered in a 10-foot fall from a bridge, he said.
About half a dozen paramedics and firefighters attended to the man under the bridge on 15th Street just west of Railroad.
Paramedics treated the man for a leg injury at the scene, believed to be a broken ankle.
The injured man was then taken to the hospital.
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