EAST WENATCHEE — Two men were seriously injured Tuesday afternoon when a helicopter clipped a power line while attempting to dry off an East Wenatchee cherry orchard.

The accident occurred at about 3:20 p.m. Tuesday following a brief rainstorm. The helicopter was hovering over a cherry orchard between Rock Island Road and Highway 28 near South Mary Avenue when it apparently hit the power line and went down in the orchard.

“I gave him one of my arms to hold on to. It looked like he was pretty badly injured,” said Joe Ells, who lives near the accident site. Ells and Nathan Goforth said they had just left work when they heard the crash and ran into the orchard. Ells said he could tell the two men were seriously injured and that he shouldn’t try moving them from the wreckage. The helicopter landed upside down, he said, and the men were locked into their seatbelts hanging in the cockpit.

“I didn’t want to move them. There are people more qualified than me to do that. I just tried to hold him up and told him help was on the way. I hope he’s going to be alright. I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Ells said.

First responders arrived within five minutes of the crash, said Goforth.

Fire crews blocked off South Mary Avenue and called in crews to service the 100,000-volt power line that was damaged, but not severed.

The two men were removed from the helicopter and transported by ambulances to Central Washington Hospital. Their identities and information about their conditions was not available Tuesday. Fire crews hosed down the helicopter and crash site.

Helicopters are routinely called in the blow moisture off cherries after a rainstorm. Nearly ripe cherries will absorb moisture faster than their skins can expand and split, making the crop worthless.