Multiple skiers injured after falling off chairlift at a Lake Tahoe ski resort, officials say

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- Five people were hospitalized Monday after a chairlift seemed to malfunction on the Nevada side of the Heavenly Mountain Resort, which spans both sides of the California-Nevada border in the Lake Tahoe region.

The incident occurred in the morning hours, with Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District responding to the scene at approximately 10 a.m. local time. It sent two engines and three ambulances.

A fire rescue statement reported that five individuals had subsequently been hospitalized in Reno, Nevada.

Three individuals suffered injuries directly related to a fall from the ski lift.

ABC7 News has been in contact with a friend of one of the victims who tells us that one man who fell off the lift, injured his shoulder to the point that emergency surgery was needed. Another was having problems breathing and there was a belief he may have a punctured lung.

The chair they were riding appeared to slide backward, eventually striking the chair behind it.

The length of the fall was estimated to be about 30 feet onto the snow.

Two of the individuals were described by fire rescue personnel as a 60-year-old male and a 71-year-old male, according to a recording of the emergency call obtained through Broadcastify. The former was reportedly wearing a helmet at the time of his fall, but had suffered a loss of consciousness.

The same recording identified the presence of a third injured party and mentioned the potential need for an air ambulance at the scene.

In a picture taken by a witness, it appears that one of the chairlifts slid back into another chairlift as it was going up. Someone appeared to be trapped in the back chairlift.

A witness described what she saw.

"As we were getting up in the air we could see about 15, quite a few EMT or red medics that were there surrounding someone and my husband did notice the backpack. Hanging from the chairlift. We were just on that so thankfully that wasn't us so and I said out loud, 'I can't even think of that' because that will make me not want to ski anymore," said Heidi Schmitt.

While the cause of the incident has yet to be determined, the weather system that had been slamming the West Coast over the weekend was responsible for generating powerful winds across parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where a weather monitoring station located at the highest point of Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort reported a gust of 78 mph on Sunday, one day before the chairlift incident occurred.

A spokesperson for the ski property confirmed on Monday that an "incident" had occurred on its Comet Express chairlift, saying, "The safety of our guests is our top priority and the resort is investigating the incident."

ABC7 News reporter J.R. Stone contributed to this story.