A 50-year-old Healdsburg man was severely injured Wednesday when he fell down a steep and rocky cliff on his Fitch Mountain property, Healdsburg Fire Department personnel said.

The unidentified man used his cellphone to call his wife, who alerted emergency personnel to the accident shortly before 1 p.m.

Firefighters found him about 50 feet down the wooded embankment in an area so steep they had to cut into the hillside to create a flat spot so they could work on him, said Capt. Jason Boaz.

Firefighters immobilized the man and placed him into a special basket that was hoisted off the hillside by a CHP helicopter out of Napa, emergency personnel said.

The aircraft crew set him down on a nearby Russian River beach so he could be placed into the helicopter for the flight to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment of broken ribs and spinal injuries, fire personnel said.

The man was later transferred to Stanford Medical Center, Boaz said.

Healdsburg Fire declined to release the man’s name.

Cal Fire, Geyserville Fire, Cloverdale Fire, Sonoma County Fire and Bell’s Ambulance personnel assisted with the rescue, the Healdsburg Fire Department said.