Renee Segault gave her children specific instructions when she allowed them to play in an open space away from the bluff at Fort Ebey State Park Tuesday.

And when Segault saw her daughter, Rhya, 9, return shortly afterward without her younger brothers, she figured it wasn’t a good sign.

“She said, ‘They did exactly what you told them not to do mom,’” Segault said.

North Whidbey Fire and Rescue and Navy Region Northwest combined efforts to perform a high-angle rescue after the two boys slid down into an area of the bluff about 50 feet that was too steep to safely climb out without help.

The brothers, Isaac, 7, and Daniel, 4, were uninjured after longtime North Whidbey Fire volunteer firefighter Bill Brooks was lowered down to safely retrieve them.

The boys were camping at the state park with their Orcas Island family in part to celebrate Daniel’s 5th birthday, which is Wednesday.

“My only rule was for them not to go to the cliff’s edge,” Segault said.

Instead, she was told the boys intentionally slid down a ways to a ledge, then couldn’t get back out. The grade below was even steeper and about 100 feet up from the beach.

Brooks, who is part of the department’s technical rope rescue team that trains regularly with the Navy and other agencies, said the boys seemed a little surprised when he came to get them.

“I told them we were going to give them a cool red helmet. I said we’ve got to be able to LCES, which means, ‘Look Cool Every Second.’”

Mark Kirko, deputy chief with North Whidbey Fire and Rescue, said his department is called to these sort of responses about three of four times a year.