Quincy Quarry fall latest in long history of accidents

QUINCY — A man rescued this week after falling and being trapped for two days at the Quincy Quarries is the latest in dangerous incident at the destination, which has a history of accidents and peril.

The one-time pride of the city's granite industry, the quarries have become a popular sight-seeing, hiking and climbing destination for the South Shore and greater Boston-area. Some who grew up in the area were warned as kids to avoid the sometimes perilous cliffs, others have no idea of the more than a dozen deaths that had been reported there since the 1960s.

Quincy Fire Capt. Daniel Gorman, a veteran of the department who has participated in a number of quarry rescues, said that the area isn't an inherently dangerous place, but people need to be careful when they visit.

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"You have to respect your surroundings, and be careful where you're going. It's the same caution you'd use hiking anywhere," Gorman said on Sunday. "One of the takeaways from the latest incident is to not go up there alone."

The Quincy Fire Department said the man was found on Thursday by a hiker who heard him moaning in pain in the Quincy Quarries Reservation.

The man, who is in his 60s, suffered extensive injuries after he apparently slipped and fell down a rocky, 40-foot cliff, the department said. Quincy Fire Deputy Chief Tim Burchill said on Thursday the tops of the quarries can become slippery and it appeared the man was walking on the top of a moss-covered cliff when he slipped.

He landed in the basin below near a small lake but just missed falling into the water, the department said. He was conscious when rescuers arrived and took him to the hospital for further treatment. Burchill said the man suffered “quite a few” injuries, but was awake and knew what was going on when first responders found him. The injuries did not appear to be life threatening, Burchill said.

The department said rescue responses at the quarry tend to increase in the summer as recreational activities pick up. The fire department responded to a similar incident in May after a woman fell about 60 feet from a ledge in the area of Swingles Quarry. She was taken to Boston Medical Center with serious but not life-threatening injuries.

The quarries had more than a dozen visitors on Sunday, rock climbing, walking and spray painting, adding to the myriad colorful designs covering the cliff faces.

Dustin Colson who grew up in Jamaica Plain but was back visiting from Virginia, said the area can be dangerous and added that maybe a set of climbing warnings could be posted at the entrance of the reservation, emphasizing caution.  

"They have them at national parks. I think they could be useful here," the rock climber said.

Kirsten Agla, of New Hampshire, and Matt Teal, of Boston, were rock climbing with a group of friends at about 11 a.m.

"I don't think I'd ever come here alone," Agla said.

Teal said that he never felt unsafe while climbing there, but was concerned about the amount of broken glass and trash that litters the quarries, wishing that the city or state would install some trash cans. The site is known for people sneaking there to drink beer, smoke pot or light fireworks at night.

Shelley Lebert, of North Attleboro, was showing some out-of-state family the cliffs and spray-painted murals on Sunday. She said she grew up in the area and graduated high school in the mid-1990s and remembers some of the deaths that had occurred at the quarries in Quincy and in Milford. 

"I'm surprised it's open," Lebert said. "I'm concerned abut the cliffs facing the Expressway."

A portion of the quarries with some of the steepest drops faces the Southeast Expressway portion of Interstate-93.

"If you're not being stupid or drunk and doing the right thing you should be OK," Lebert said.

Many of the quarries shut down active operations in the 1920s and 1930s with the last quarry shutting down in the early 1960s. Several of the open pits filled with water, becoming a popular swimming and diving destination especially among young people. Many were hurt jumping off the cliffs into the water over the years, and between 1960 and 1998 at least 13 people died falling or jumping off rock edges at the quarries.

A 2004 book about the quarries by John A. Laukkanen claims there have been 51 accidental deaths, including drownings, at the site after it was no longer an active quarry. Officials dumped trees and telephone poles into some of the quarries in the 1970s in an effort to deter swimmers but possibly added to the danger instead. City and state officials have long considered the defunct quarries a safety issue.

The spot was also considered an infamous dumping spot for criminals of evidence, including dead bodies. The body of a teen girl from Stoughton was found weighted down in one of the quarries in 1994 after her murder.

A number of high-profile deaths and incidents at the quarries in the 1990s, including an Irish teen who fell to his death after a night of drinking in 1994, convinced authorities to finally drain and fill in some of what was left of the old quarries to fix what was considered a public safety hazard. Several of the old quarries were filled with debris from the Big Dig in the early 2000s and started a second life as park run by the state's  Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, with a number of left over cliff faces that are perfect for climbing.

The fill-in didn't automatically end the peril however, with a number of accidents happening in the past 20 years, including another death there in 2009 of a Milton man, who slipped and fell into one of the quarries still filled with water.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Joe Difazio can be reached at jdifazio@patriotledger.com.