A worker working on a tower under construction in Reading (United Kingdom) was rescued on Thursday by the quick and agile actions of a crane operator who managed to locate a cabin within reach to extract him while he was surrounded by fire and a real wall. of black smoke.
A tower under construction, apparently intended for the installation of offices in the English city, suffered a fire in a high-altitude area, where a worker was trapped, with no possible escape. According to local media, the hero of the day was the operator of a crane, who managed to maneuver a cabin closer to him so he could return him to the ground floor and be safe.
Emergency services were alerted to the fire shortly after half past eleven and around 50 firefighters worked at the scene along with an aerial ladder platform and an incident command unit. Two people, including the individual rescued from the One Station Hill building, were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. None of which were treated as serious cases.
With them safe and beyond the material damage and panic caused by the fire, all eyes and repercussions were on the heroic rescue. Glen Edwards, 65, told the AP news agency: "I was no more than 20 meters up and I looked out the window to my left and saw a guy standing on the corner of the building."
"I had just seen it and someone said 'can you put the cage on it?', so that was it, I put on the cabin and handed it to them as best I could. There was quite a bit of wind," the operator said simply. And then he completed His story, as reported by The Independent: "I would say it was very close, if you watch the video and see the way the wind was swirling there. I tried to put the cage between him and the flames, but the wind that was swirling around me around prevented me. But I lowered the cage and managed to get him in there.
For its part, Sky News published the testimony of a carpenter who worked nearby. "He was coughing, because of the smoke, you know what I mean. When he entered (the cabin) and the crane lowered him, everyone was applauding," he said. And he added: "The crane driver was very fast. He was still on the crane while the building was on fire."
