A military helicopter hoists a technician and the crane operator to safety.
Photo Credit: Lars Hagberg/Canadian Press

Helicopter plucks crane operator from fire

A military rescue technician was lowered from a helicopter to rescue a crane operator stranded above a raging fire in Kingston in the province of Ontario on Tuesday afternoon. The operator was lucky the incident occurred less than 100km from Canadian Forces Base Trenton, home to airborne rescue teams.

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The crane operator moved to the end of the crane to escape fire raging in a student residence under construction below him. © Bruce Cadieux/Twitter

Stranded, no escape

To escape the fire, the operator had moved to the end of the crane with no apparent way to get down. Sgt. Cory Cisyk, a search and rescue technician was lowered from the helicopter on a cable. At first the noise of the rotor made it difficult to communicate.

“”I kept asking if he was OK. I kept telling him I was trying to get him out of there,” said Cisyk. He said he had trouble getting a special harness on the man because he was lying down at the end of the crane’s boom, but the helicopter flight engineer was able to help.

Crane collapse a possibility

“He could tell I was having a hard time getting the individual to stand up, so he was gently hoisting to aid me,” said Cisyk. The man was eventually raised into the helicopter and taken to hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.

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Freezing temperatures added to the challenge of fighting the fire under the damaged crane. © Lars Hagberg/Canadian Press

The possibility that the crane could collapse hampered firefighters efforts to put out the flames in what was a student residence under construction. Engineers were brought in to try to figure out what to do with it.

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