CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Fire Department rescued a construction worker on a 300-foot tower crane after he suffered a partial arm amputation in a cable accident Friday afternoon, according to District 1 Fire Capt. Lou Arnold.
Firefighter Andy Herbert monitors the victim on his ride to safety and prepares ground forces for the transfer of care pic.twitter.com/Hk5mQMo2ek
— Cincy Fire & EMS (@CincyFireEMS) April 5, 2019
The rescue took place at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital critical care tower, under construction for about a year.
The worker called 9-1-1 himself and crews had to use the crane's winch system to lower him to the ground on a rescue stretcher, assisted by a firefighter.
Arnold said rescues at that height are uncommon but they train for them.
"Everything went flawless," Arnold said.
First arriving companies climbed the tower and found the victim had suffered a significant blood loss, Arnold said. They applied first aid and a tourniquet, and Heavy Rescue brought him down without incident.
"The Heavy Rescue guys train on that. They're great at what they do," Arnold said.
The rescue took about an hour, Arnold said.
"We couldn't bring him down the internal stairway of the crane, so as you saw it was a slow and methodical getting the basket up there and bringing it back down. They only have one speed on those cables," Arnold said.
The worker was conscious and alert when rescued and was in stable condition at University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Arnold said.
Cincinnati Fire Department members are in the scene of a rescue of a construction worker at Children’s Hospital pic.twitter.com/fwMTQef0V8
— Cincy Fire & EMS (@CincyFireEMS) April 5, 2019
At 280 ft or more above the ground the rescue operations will be slow... AC Lakamp is in command of current operations with both of the city’s Heavy Rescue teams and District Ones Dist Chief Arnold. pic.twitter.com/Krz0eStWe6
— Cincy Fire & EMS (@CincyFireEMS) April 5, 2019
— Cincy Fire & EMS (@CincyFireEMS) April 5, 2019
