A community disaster takes a community response.

That heroism through teamwork was truly on display when the Wyoming County Emergency Management Office, Warsaw Fire Department and Rescue Squad, Wyoming Hook and Ladder company, Wyoming County Sheriff's Office, New York State Police, Monroe Ambulance, and Mercy Flight of Western New York came together to literally lift a Chautauqua County boy to safety.

”I heard our radio go off and I was like, 'Hey, that's our tones.'”

“It definitely changes the urgency.”

“You drop everything and you just go.”

It was a Sunday afternoon in June when emergency responders from across Wyoming County rushed into action.

The call was for an 11-year-old boy who had fallen 100 feet into a gorge while hiking with family in the town of Middlebury. It's a remote location with tough terrain, steep banks and waterfalls. It's on private property unfamiliar to many on the scene.

Charles Craigmile from the Warsaw Fire Department was among the first group to find the child.

"We got to the edge of the gorge and I could hear the kid screaming down there," said Craigmile.

Howard Ridall from the Wyoming Fire Department is part of the county's rope rescue team. He and others climbed down the gorge and into the creek to reach the boy, who had a fractured leg from the fall.

"'I heard, 'my leg hurts really bad. I can't move it,'" said Ridall.

"You've just got to relate with the child. You've got to reassure him that everything's under a control. Really a cool head goes far," Craigmile said.

Seargent Colin Reagan with the Wyoming County Sheriff's Department made his way through the woods and realized the boy and the rescuers below were in a difficult position.  

'We tried every different angle we could think of to get pain management or any kind of advanced medical assistance to the child. It was nearly impossible," said Reagan.

Pulling the boy out of the ravine with a rope was too dangerous so they called in the New York State Police rescue helicopter, which was equipped to hoist the patient out with a basket connected by a cable.

Christian Koch was the pilot that day.

"We were kind of surprised when we got there at how deep the ravine was. There's not many that deep in the area, but this was one of them," said Koch.

After locating the boy, they lowered the basket some 220 feet along with trooper medic Brian Brass.

The rescuers loaded him up and hoisted him out of the gorge to safety.

"He was a tough kid, yes. He absolutely was doing really well through it," said Brass.

From there, the state police transferred the child to Mercy Flight. Pilot Marc Boies and Paramedic Jeff Abbott took over and brought him to Oishei Children’s Hospital.

"He was a lot better than I anticipated, luckily. He didn’t have too many obvious injuries," said Abbott.

"Everybody really wants to take care of the child. I think every call you get, that infant, an adolescent a teenager, maybe even a little bit more heightened how critical it is to take care of the child," said Boies.

The entire operation lasted about six hours and thanks to the cooperation of professionals, volunteers, and many different agencies, the boy got the help he needed and he's now doing just fine.

"It all comes together. We work together. We get the job done and hopefully, it's a positive outcome," said Bill Streicher, Wyoming County fire and EMS coordinator.

'There's no way any specific entity could have done it themselves. We needed everybody," said Laurel Perl, Monroe Ambulance EMT.

"This is exactly what we train for, going on the fly. We can pre-plan all we want, we always say plans only make a difference when there's a plan for it," said Wyoming County Medic Bryan Goyette. 

"Job well done. We call came together. We had good leadership," Craigmile said.

"We did what we had to do to get the patient out and keep him safe," Ridall said.

Heroism through teamwork. It's what makes these rescuers our 2020 American Red Cross Real Heroes.