ATHERTON, CA
A 33-year-old iron worker was injured on Friday when he fell into a basement from an incomplete first floor, according to a report from Menlo Park Fire Protection District Chief Harold Schapelhouman.
Firefighters from Engine 3 in Atherton were dispatched at 12:15 p.m. to a construction site on Britton Avenue. Capt. Mike Harrington and his crew arrived at 12:20 p.m. and found a man with “significant head wound and body trauma” in a basement that had no stairs.
Fire trucks 1 and 4 were called, and a 35-foot ladder was fully extended at an angle into the basement to establish what Schapelhouman called a “ladder slide.”
The victim, who had fallen 15 to 18 feet, was placed into a Stokes litter basket to immobilize his spine and neck, and pulled up the ladder slide using a rope and rigging system at 12:40 p.m.
The man was transported by AMR ambulance to Stanford Medical Center. His condition is unknown.
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ATHERTON, CA
Menlo Park firefighters recently rescued a man who fell up to 18 feet from a building he was working on, landing on the concrete floor below, fire officials announced Monday. This marks the second time in nine months that crews have had to use specialized rescue techniques and technical rope and rigging equipment to perform such a rescue.
According to the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, the incident happened on Friday around 12:15 p.m. Friday at a residential construction site located on Britton Avenue in the Town of Atherton. The 33-year-old man, an iron worker, had reportedly "sustained a free fall" into the basement and suffered a "significant" head wound and body trauma. However, he was still conscious and breathing, fire officials said.
Firefighters got to the scene within five minutes and got to work rigging a system to get the man out of the basement, which had no stairs.
"The personnel on Engine 3 assisted by the AMR Ambulance crew treated and packaged the patient while members of Truck 1 and Engine 4 placed a fully extended 35 foot ladder at a convenient angle to establish a 'ladder slide' that also incorporated a mechanical advantage rope and rigging system needed to manually and safely haul the patient up and out of the basement, after placing him in a stokes liter basket so his cervical spine and neck were immobilized so as to minimize the potential of further injury," a fire department news release states.
The man was pulled from the basement by 12:40 p.m. and taken to Stanford hospital.
“We are experiencing a building boom as part of a robust economy," Fire Chief Schapelhouman said. "Unfortunately, we have also noticed that with that comes a higher and more frequent number of industrial emergencies and accidents as our firefighters very adeptly and quickly addressed during this emergency."
Firefighters performed a similar rescue operation last August.