Worker was ‘unable to get out due to injury’
A construction worker was rescued Tuesday afternoon after falling roughly 18 feet down a steep embankment at a job site in the 1200 block of Hemlock Road, Ottawa Fire Services said.
Ottawa Fire Services said its Communications Division received the call at approximately 3:12 p.m. from the Ottawa Police Service, which requested a rope rescue response for reports of "a construction worker who had fallen from a ladder into a pit." The initial extent of the fall was not known when crews were dispatched.
Firefighters arrived on scene three minutes after being dispatched and confirmed the worker was "approximately 18 feet down a steep embankment and unable to get out due to injury," Ottawa Fire Services said.
Technical rescue relied on rope team, aerial ladder
The department's Rope Rescue Team began technical rigging while other firefighters made contact with the worker and prepared the patient for extraction in a Stokes basket, a rigid litter used in confined-space and vertical rescues.
An aerial ladder truck was set up to serve as an anchor point for the rope system, a method fire services commonly use when no fixed structural anchor is available at ground level near the rescue site.
Once the worker was secured, a Rope Rescue Technician attached themselves directly to the basket, and the pair were hoisted together out of the pit, according to Ottawa Fire Services.
Patient transferred to paramedics
Ottawa Fire Services said the rescue was completed at 3:55 p.m., roughly 40 minutes after the initial call, and the patient was then transferred into the care of the Ottawa Paramedic Service for further treatment.
The department credited its Rope Rescue Team and partner agencies, including Ottawa Police Service and Ottawa Paramedic Service, for the coordinated response to the fall.
No further details on the worker's condition, the employer, or the circumstances of the fall were released as of publication.
