US Park Police investigating the death of a woman at Ft Funston. She may have fallen off cliff. @kron4news pic.twitter.com/er0uoEGwYV

— Chuck Clifford (@chuckclifford) October 6, 2017

A woman was killed in San Francisco Thursday evening, after she fell from a cliff at Fort Funston.

San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter tells CBS 5 that the incident was reported via 911 at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

The woman, since identified by the Chron as 36-year-old Tracy resident Arezoo Yusufi, was standing to the side of one of the area's hang gliding platforms before the fall, CBS 5 reports.

According to ABC 7, "The victim was apparently alone --- and it is unclear how she fell."

"It's a 300 foot fall," Baxter told ABC 7. "We started life-saving measures...unsuccessful."

The platform itself has a safety barrier, CBS 5 reports. According to NBC Bay Area, "There are signs along the trails warning walkers to stay away from the edge. A lot of footprints also can be seen in those dangerous areas."

“Cliffs anywhere are going to be dangerous," Baxter told CBS 5, "That’s why your San Francisco Fire continuously puts out cliff- and surf-rescue warnings which we did today as well. If you’re going to be in the area you need to stay away from the cliffs."

"Our hearts go out to the victim and her family," SF Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White told ABC 7. "It's always good to have a buddy, or a partner when you're walking."

Related: St. Ignatius High School Student Killed In Fall From San Francisco Cliff

A teenaged girl from a small Minnesota town was killed this week when she fell while hiking on a popular Lake Tahoe trail.

14-year-old Chloe Conn of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, was killed Wednesday after falling "50 feet after slipping from a rocky outcropping," the Sacramento Bee reports.

Sheriff’s deputy Damian Frisby, the office’s search and rescue coordinator, said that the girl was with her mother, father and 17-year-old brother when the accident occurred.

“She got into a spot that gradually steepened,” Frisby said. “It became almost vertical. She lost her footing and fell about 50-plus feet.”

The fall occurred on an outcropping about 75 yards from a parking lot along Highway 89. From the parking lot, thousands of people every year take a safe, wide trail down the hill to the shore of Emerald Bay.

According to the Bee, the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office got the call regarding the incident at 12:06 p.m. Wednesday. Though an off-duty law enforcement officer in the area "came to the girl’s aid and began CPR before emergency personnel arrived," she succumbed to her injuries at Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe.

D-L Online reports that the girl was on vacation with her family, and was hiking The Vikingsholm Trail, which is reportedly "heavily trafficked" that drops 500 feet along its one mile to Vikingsholm, an historic Scandinavian-style home built in 1929.

According to a statement sent out by Detroit Lakes Middle School, at which Chloe had just completed the eighth grade:

Chloe’s mother, Stacy Conn, is a nursing assistant at Detroit Lakes Middle School. Chloe’s brother Christian will be a Senior at Detroit Lakes High School next fall. Chloe was a true Laker as she was an excellent student and beloved by all who knew her. Middle School counselors and staff are available as students, staff, and the community become aware of Chloe’s passing. During this tragic time, we ask that you please keep the Conn family in your thoughts and prayers.

A GoFundMe set up by Tim McMichael, a family friend of the Conns', has already generated $14,830. "Chloe was loved by many, she had a bright sweet smile everywhere she went. She was a great sister to her older brother Christian. She was her daddy's little girl, and her mama's best friend," McMichael writes. The funds raised by the GoFundMe, he says, will go to Chloe's parents "to help with funeral costs and medical expenses."

It's decorative gourd season, motherf****rs, and this year — as any other — the place to be is Half Moon Bay. The self-proclaimed World Pumpkin Capital hosts its 46th annual Pumpkin Festival this weekend, but before that, weighers had some heavy lifting to do, selecting the largest pumpkins at the 43rd annual World Champion Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off.

"This is my ultimate pumpkin fantasy," Cindy Tobeck of Littelrock Washington told ABC7, "to be at Half Moon Bay with something really large." The grower of the greatest great pumpkin, presumably in the most sincere pumpkin patch, claims a prize of $6 per pound.

This year, Tobeck did indeed win with a 1,910-pound gourd that earned her almost $12,000. Last year's winner was even larger than this year's at 1,969 pounds. The event is sponsored by Safeway, where, mercifully, you're unlikely to encounter such gigantic gourds, the likes of which might house a family.

A 1,432 pound pumpkin: Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off via Facebook

Size isn't everything, of course, and another contest for the shapeliest, loveliest, "most beautiful" pumpkin was also hosted. Here's the winning specimen, held aloft by a forklift:

Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off via Facebook

Related: You Regatta See These Photos From The SF Model Yacht Club's Wooden Boat Parade

Nearly two weeks after window washer Pedro Perez fell from an 11 story building onto a car in the Financial District, family members say he's making a slow but steady recovery. Even slower, however, has been the response from the union to which Perez belongs, which didn't reach out to help him until, oddly enough, broadcast television cameras were present.

It was Friday, November 21 at around 10:03 when the 58-year-old San Leandro man fell from the Sterling Bank & Trust building at California and Montgomery Streets while on the window washing job. He landed on a passing Toyota Camry, crushing in the roof but, astoundingly, leaving the car's driver uninjured.

Financial District passers-by rushed to his aid, and he was taken to San Francisco General Hospital's Intensive Care Unit, where he remains to this day.

Perez's daughter spoke with ABC7, telling them that her dad was a 15-year veteran of the window washing business, making his 11-story fall even more surprising to her.

She also says that in the confusion following his fall, a co-worker actually called his family and told them Perez was dead. It wasn't until a call from SF General over an hour later that they learned that he was still alive, suffering from a shattered pelvis, a broken arm, and and internal bleeding.

Amazingly, his daughter says, he suffered "no major head injury," and his back and legs were unbroken even after the fall. He's now breathing on his own, and is trying to speak, his daughter says.

However, his road to recovery is still a long one, and he was working to support a wife and three daughters. That's what has made the silence from his union, SEIU United Service Workers West, all the more frustrating, his family says. According to them, they haven't heard been able to get a response from his union, which says on its website that it exists to "provide live support and assistance to SEIU USWW members via the telephone, and to help build a stronger union by providing members with the tools and information needed to win at their worksite."

In what has to be a coincidence, however, the union finally called Perez's family back on Wednesday to offer their assistance...just as ABC7's cameras were there to capture the moment. Odd, that.

Previously: Window Washer Survives 11-Story Fall FiDi Fall Onto Moving Car

couple photos of that car that broke the guy's fall on Montgomery & California in FIDI. that car saved his life. pic.twitter.com/SDOKOb2z0C

— Chuck Reynolds (@ChuckReynolds) November 21, 2014

A window washer who fell from the roof of an 11-story Financial District building was is in critical but stable condition Friday, perhaps saved by the moving car on which he landed.

KCBS reports that the man fell from the Sterling Bank & Trust building at California and Montgomery Streets at 10:03 Friday morning.

They report that the man and his colleague were "adjusting their cables from the roof while their working platform lay on the ground," when the man apparently lost his balance and fell.

The man fell onto a Toyota Camry that was approaching the intersection, Bay City News reports via the Ex.

BCN reports that Bianca Bahman, 31, a pre-med student at SF State was passing by when the man fell. She says that "the car's roof caved in and there was blood everywhere" as the man landed on the vehicle.

A witness tells KCBS that “I was actually looking in the direction of where the fellow fell off the building and I saw something blue out of the corner of my eye falling and then I heard the loud thud and the shattering of the back of the car.”

About 20 passers by, including Bahman, rushed to the man's aid, while others began to direct traffic around the scene, KCBS reports.

“Everyone did the right thing, we didn’t disrupt the integrity of the spinal cord. We covered him with clothing. He was obviously in shock,” the witness said.

Remarkably, San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Sergeant Danielle Newman says, the driver of the Camry and the many pedestrians in the area all escaped injury in the incident.

The man, who is described thus far only as "middle-aged," was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital. At publication time, he remains in critical but stable condition.

During a Bay to Breakers party at 2040 Fell Street, a man suffered life-threatening injuries after falling from a roof on Sunday afternoon. He fell four stories from the top of the Panhandle-adjacent building.

According to KRON 4 Morning News, the man tumbled while leaning over the roof. (Fell Street runs along the Bay to Breakers route.) The incident happened at around 3:15 p.m. He was rushed to San Francisco General where he later died.

The identity of the victim has yet to be released.

In addition to one fatality, police pinched 21 people for public intoxication, "one for possession of a firearm and one felony arrest for robbery during the race and event. " A reported 16 sots were taken to sobriety centers to recover from the revelry.

Update: The Chron reports that the victim has been identified as 28-year-old David Hamzeh, an employee at the online marketing company DemandForce, according to a company spokesperson. It sounds like many people witnessed his from the sidewalk and from neighboring buildings, and it was pretty gruesome and traumatic. The party was allegedly not very rowdy, but at 3:30 p.m. it's likely Hamzeh had been drinking most of the day. [Chron]

[KRON 4]
[CBS SF]

If we had any ounce of adventurousness in us on this rainy morning, we'd be on the road to Half Moon Bay for the 38th Annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, which we just read about on FunCheapSF.

The current world record for heaviest pumpkin to beat is 1,810.5 pounds, which was set last year at a GPC Weigh-Off in Stillwater, Minnesota. The top local pumpkins from the past two years weighed in at 1,535 pounds in 2010 and 1,658 pounds in 2009.

Bay City News calculates that "[t]he biggest pumpkin will fetch a prize of $6 per pound--possibly over $10,000 -- and prizes will be awarded for second through 10th place."

Those wishing to witness the champion mega-pumpkin and the five championship runner-ups in person can check them out at Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival next weekend. You can even get your photo taken alongside the giant gourd.

[FunCheapSF]

The Chronicle reports that well-known Bay Area actress, Summer Serafin, died on March 18 at San Francisco General Hospital after suffering a traumatic brain injury, which had put her in a coma for ten days. Serafin, who starred in countless local theatrical productions and appeared in several independent films, fell from her fire escape in the Inner Sunset on March 8.

Serafin was starring in On the Waterfront at San Jose Stage Company at the time and was rehearsing for another play at her house when she stepped outside onto the fire escape for some air. She fell over the low railing, which Serafin's husband, British actor Rowan Brooks, who was with Serafin during the accident, estimates was a 35-foot fall from their third-floor apartment. She was 31.

Serafin was born in Sacramento and was part of ACT's Young Conservatory starting at a young age. She also trained with the Sacramento Ballet and studied voice at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She had lived with Type 1 diabetes since age five and four years ago had undergone a double organ transplant, receiving a new kidney and pancreas. Her career took off shortly afterward.

Brooks and Serafin's theater colleagues are planning a public celebration of her life, which might happen some time in April.