03.12.2009

Stranded 38m up

Two men were stranded on Wednesday in a boom truck platform on Wednesday night following two failed rescue attempts by local fire services in Cleveland, Texas.

The two who are employed by Baker signs and were working on a 130ft/39m high McDonalds sign when the boom truck malfunctioned leaving the two stranded and facing falling temperatures, high winds and nightfall.

The Cleveland fire service attended but its ladders and platforms were not high enough. With a replacement boom truck from Bakers, still over an hour away the fire-fighters call on another local service to bring in a higher ladder truck.
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The two men were stranded for hours

The Porter fire service arrived with its 105ft/32 metre ladder but it also proved to be too low. Finally the new boom truck arrived and the two men were successfully rescued without injury.

Vertikal Comment

This is a classic case of not knowing where the emergency descent in the truck was…IF there was one and not having any plan for rescue.

It was an idea case where if the truck or the rescue services had been equipped with an inertia type escape system the two could have lowered themselves to the ground and maybe even have fixed the machine?