Police rescuers have busy weekend

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 1999 | 10:39 a.m.

Metro Police search and rescue units had a busy Labor Day weekend, searching three area mountain ranges for four missing hikers, two lost dirt bikers and two men whose four-wheel-drive vehicle got stuck in a ravine.

Three of those searches produced five rescues, while three other people who were lost in a fourth incident were otherwise accounted for.

One of the searches, an early Sunday scouring of Mount Potosi to the southwest, turned out to be a waste of time as three women, who were reported missing by a concerned family member had not even gone there as they had planned.

"The man who called us was insistent that his son's wife (and two other women) had not returned after exploring a cave on Mount Potosi, so we sent a helicopter to the area," Metro Lt. Dwight Mahan said.

"We later got the call from the man telling us the women never went to the mountains. Instead they decided to go to Lake Mead for the day but did not call to inform (family members) of their change of plans."

On Sunday an incident in the Virgin Mountains, 60 miles north of Las Vegas, resulted in a search and rescue helicopter being dispatched to find two men who had called in their location on a cellular telephone.

"They were 26 miles from any services," Mahan said. "They had tried to take a shortcut on a dirt bike trail and got stuck in a ravine. So they hiked to the top of a nearby hill and called us on a cellular phone with their coordinates.

"We rescued them, but the only way they will ever get their vehicle out of there is to have a helicopter lift it out."

The men, identified as Stephen Burns, 52, and Ted Inness, 47, both of Las Vegas, were flown by rescue helicopter to Mesquite where arrangements were made to return them to Las Vegas.

Also on Sunday, two male dirt bike riders were reported missing on the Mount Charleston Range above Indian Springs at about 4:30 p.m. A citizen who was looking for them found a shirt that one of the men had been wearing.

The Metro helicopter searched the area until darkness and resumed the search Monday at daybreak, Mahan said, noting that the two men were found a mile from their bikes. They were dehydrated, having run out of water on Sunday, but were otherwise unharmed, he said.

The men were identified as Ryan Inman, 21, and Jack Pong, 42, both of Las Vegas.

At about 6 p.m. Monday, a woman was reported injured in the North Loop Trail of Mount Charleston. She was located and carried out with an injured ankle. Her name was not available.