Six undercover law enforcement officers are safe tonight, after suffering from heat exhaustion, on Mount San Jacinto. The group called for help around 11:15 this morning, near the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Emergency crews first set up their command post at the Visitor's Center, then a short time later, they loaded up and relocated to Snow Creek Road, South of Interstate 10, off of Highway 111. John Miller, P.I.O. for the U.S. Forest Service says, "We brought in Cal-Fire's helicopter and paramedics , to help extract those officers down here to Snow Creek Village, to be evaluated."
The six state, federal and local officers were rescued, roughly 6-thousand feet up Mt. San Jacinto. As they were brought off of the helicopter, we were asked not to show their faces, since the officers are working undercover. When we asked for comment on the type of investigation Miller said, "No, the officers were just conducting an operation, in the local mountains."
The U.S. Forest Service says besides the six officers rescued, more are still in the mountains above Snow Creek, conducting their undercover investigation.
Two of the officers suffered more severely than the others, one was reportedly unconscious at one point, prompting a radio call, for help.
Miller says, "The message to the public is this can happen to anyone. It happens to our firefighters and police officers, so we ask the general public to be extra careful when recreating in our local mountains."