An employee of the Streator Country Club was injured Thursday morning after falling 100 feet while mowing the country club grounds.

Reading Fire Protection District Chief Paul Losey could not give the identity of the 66-year-old man, but said he is in the serious condition.

"He fell on the west side of the country club (2000 Eastwood Avenue), which drops straight into the Vermilion River," Losey said. "He fell in the riverbank."

The man fell at about 10:50 a.m. while on a riding lawn mower, slipping down about 60 feet with the mower until both hit a tree and then the man continued to fall another 40 feet.

Firefighters from Reading, Grand Ridge and the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Division 25, including representatives from Streator, Ottawa, Naplate, Mendota, Utica and La Salle fire departments responded to the scene.

Ryan Reynolds, a member of MABAS and Streator Fire Department lieutenant, said 13 MABAS members were on the scene because initially firefighters thought the injured man would need to be pulled by rope up the steep hill, an operation MABAS is trained to perform. Firefighters were able to package the man, who was unable to walk, and walk across the shallow river to the other side, where the ambulance sat 10 feet away.

"Initially, we though we'd have to haul him 100 feet on ropes," Reynolds said.