23.08.2006

Firemen to the rescue

Two Pest controllers using a boom lift on the Blackpool Prom in the UK, last week were stranded for over two hours after the platform stopped working. The two men were working around nine metres up, on the Sandcastle Waterworld early on Thursday morning, when the lift stopped working.
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Two men were stranded for two hours, sensibly they remained in the platform

The men work for Manchester-based Pest Proof, said that in spite of several attempts they failed to lower the lift and eventually had to call for help.

Firemen from South Shore called on Bispham Fire Station to send its truck mounted aerial platform to the rescue,
Peter Langley of the local fire brigade said: "We were called at around 7.20am to the Sandcastle to release two men who were trapped 30 ft in the air. They had been carrying out some work around the building when the mechanics on their platform left them stuck. The aerial platform was called down from Bispham and we managed to get the men over to our platform. We believe they had been stuck for two hours but they were safe and well”.

Vertikal Comment

Fortunately the two men were rescued before the crowds came out, we don’t know whether the lift failed due to a breakdown or due to a lack of fuel.

Thankfully the two did the right thing and did not attempt to climb down the boom. One assumes that they did manage to get some assistance on the ground to try and lower the machine with the emergency descent valves. If so was the fact that they failed down to lack of knowledge, jammed valves or another fault with the emergency descent mechanism?

We will probably never know. If anyone is from the area and knows more about the attempts the men made to get down, we would love to hear from you.

No information is available on who owned the machine of what model it was.