On Saturday, April 1, at approximately 8:41 a.m., units were dispatched for a report of a construction worker who had fallen approximately eight feet from a ladder.
A medic unit from Fire Station 21, Fair Oaks, arrived on scene and quickly learned that the patient was on the fifth floor with limited access. The crew requested assistance and the incident was upgraded to an above ground rescue with a Technical Rescue Operations Team response. This brought additional crews from Fire Station 21, as well as Fire Station 18 (Jefferson) and Fire Station 40 (Fairfax Center).
Firefighters found the patient on a flat roof section of the fifth floor. It was determined that the patient had fallen more than 12 feet from the sixth floor roof. A rope rescue operation was needed to extract the patient safely. Once crews stabilized the patient, he was placed into a stokes basket and lowered down a ladder to the fourth floor. The building had no interior stairs so crews transferred the patient from a fourth floor balcony to the bucket of Fire Station 40’s Tower Truck and lowered him to the ground.
The patient was transported to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries.