Construction Worker 'Free Falls' 18 Feet Into Atherton Basement, Lands On Concrete Floor: Fire Dept.

ATHERTON, CA – Menlo Park firefighters recently rescued a man who fell up to 18 feet from a building he was working on, landing on the concrete floor below, fire officials announced Monday. This marks the second time in nine months that crews have had to use specialized rescue techniques and technical rope and rigging equipment to perform such a rescue.

According to the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, the incident happened on Friday around 12:15 p.m. Friday at a residential construction site located on Britton Avenue in the Town of Atherton. The 33-year-old man, an iron worker, had reportedly "sustained a free fall" into the basement and suffered a "significant" head wound and body trauma. However, he was still conscious and breathing, fire officials said.

Firefighters got to the scene within five minutes and got to work rigging a system to get the man out of the basement, which had no stairs.

"The personnel on Engine 3 assisted by the AMR Ambulance crew treated and packaged the patient while members of Truck 1 and Engine 4 placed a fully extended 35 foot ladder at a convenient angle to establish a 'ladder slide' that also incorporated a mechanical advantage rope and rigging system needed to manually and safely haul the patient up and out of the basement, after placing him in a stokes liter basket so his cervical spine and neck were immobilized so as to minimize the potential of further injury," a fire department news release states.

The man was pulled from the basement by 12:40 p.m. and taken to Stanford hospital.

“We are experiencing a building boom as part of a robust economy," Fire Chief Schapelhouman said. "Unfortunately, we have also noticed that with that comes a higher and more frequent number of industrial emergencies and accidents as our firefighters very adeptly and quickly addressed during this emergency."

Firefighters performed a similar rescue operation last August.

Images courtesy: Menlo Park Fire Protection District