A 34-year-old Bainbridge Island man was called a hero Sunday after he grabbed his 3-year-old daughter as she went over a cliff and the man apparently shielded her fall with his body as they hit a retaining wall on the beach 80 feet below.

Bainbridge police and firefighters — and emergency responders from Poulsbo, Central Kitsap and Navy Region Northest — converged at the scene near the western end of Hidden Cove Road just after the accident about 2 p.m. Sunday.

Authorities said the man saw the little girl was about to go over the side of the bluff, but grabbed her and went over the side with her.

Both were reportedly hurt in the fall.

The man was taken from the beach, put in a police boat from Poulsbo, and taken a short distance up the Bainbridge coast to a waiting medic unit.

He was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center shortly after 3 p.m.

The child’s injuries appeared less severe.

She was seen in a child’s car seat being carried by EMTs to a gravel roadway near the accident scene, and then placed in the back of a waiting Bainbridge Island ambulance.

The child’s mother joined her in the back of the ambulance.

They were also taken to Harborview Medical Center via the Bainbridge ferry.

“We were very, very fortunate,” said Bainbridge Police Officer Trevor Ziemba.

Ziemba credited the man with taking the brunt of the fall.

“The hero of it all looks like it’s the dad,” he said.

Ziemba said the man got there just in time.

“The little girl started going toward the cliff and he saw her,” Ziemba said.

Both went over the side of the cliff, which was described as being brush-covered near the top, but clear with a straight 18-foot drop at the bottom.

Though high-angle, rope-rescue experts were called in, authorities decided the injured man did not need to be taken back up the cliff.

“We didn’t need the technical rescue assets that we had already called for,” said Bainbridge Island Assistant Fire Chief Jared Moravec. “We were able to find a quicker alternative to get him out.”

Instead, responders decided to put him into a police boat and then take him to a nearby property that had easy access to the water.

Ziemba was soaked up to nearly his waistline after taking part in the rescue.

Zeimba helped with the transition from the land to the boat, and he was quick to point out that the firefighters at the scene were the ones who deserved all the praise for the rapid response and rescue.

The man and toddler who went over the cliff did not live at the property where the incident occurred, police said, but instead were neighbors over for a visit.