PHOENIX – Rescue crews helped an injured worker down from a light tower at an East Valley baseball stadium on Thursday, authorities said.
The man suffered a head injury while replacing lights at Mesa’s Hohokam Stadium and didn’t feel like he could descend on his own, according to the Mesa Fire and Medical Department.
The contract worker was sitting on a platform among the lights atop a pole behind the left field bleachers when crews from Mesa, Phoenix and Tempe fire departments arrived at the scene. He was conscious and able to communicate throughout the rescue process.
How did rescue crews get injured worker down from light tower?
Two firefighters reached the platform by using a firetruck lift to get close enough to where they could climb the rest of the way along pegs on the side of the pole.
They secured the injured worker and, along with crews on the ground, fashioned a zipline-type mechanism. Crews then slowly lowered him down along a wire to the parking lot, where he received medical attention.
“This was … a really quick rescue for this type of situation,” Mesa Mayor Mark Freeman, a former firefighter, told reporters at the scene.
Freeman said the injured worker was stuck 120 feet in the air.
“We had to make sure all the right rescue components are there, and safety, to make sure this rescue came off perfectly, and it did,” he said.
Hohokam Stadium, which is located on Center Street between Brown and McKellips roads, is the spring training home of the Athletics.
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