Four teenagers learned what drinking alcohol in 85-degree heat in a steep area can do, and got so drunk they needed rescuers to get them down from a section of the San Gabriel Mountains.
"We don't know what they were drinking, but it was 85 degrees at 6 p.m. when this happened. The heat compounds whatever else is happening," said Pasadena Fire Department spokesperson Lisa Derderian.
Two boys and two girls, aged 15 and 16, were drunk and disoriented when rescuers reached them in Eaton Canyon, a recreation area in the rugged mountains north of Pasadena, Saturday evening.
Derderian said authorities received a cell phone call a little before 6 p.m. Saturday about a female with head injuries.
A sheriff's Search and Rescue team was to dispatched to Eaton Canyon, one-half mile north of Pine Crest Street Bridge, about 5:55 p.m., said a lieutenant at the sheriff's Altadena station.
The hikers were found about 7 p.m.
Derderian said the boys and one of the girls were able to walk out of the canyon. One of the girls was so drunk she had to be carried out and placed on a gurney.
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She was eventually taken to an area hospital. Her condition was not immediately known.
Derderian said a group of 10 other teenagers, who were not with the four drunken kids, was also escorted from Eaton Canyon Saturday evening. They were lost but did not appear to be drunk.
The lieutenant at the sheriff's Altadena station said the four drunken teenagers were not yet cited or arrested, but were turned over to their parents. She did not know if charges were pending.
