Calgary Fire Department High Angle Crane Rescue

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At around 9:00am on Wednesday Nov 19, the Calgary Fire Department Technical Rescue team was dispatched to a construction site in the 200 block of 8 AV SE for a rescue. On arrival crews were met by a worker that stated that the crane operator was having a medical emergency. One firefighter climbed up the crane to start a patient assessment while the other crew members prepared rescue equipment and gear. It was determined that the operator was unable to get down on their own, so the technical rescue team proceeded up the crane to set up a rope system. Firefighters climbed and carried equipment up the approximately 50-meter/16 story crane tower and set up a rope system anchored to the peak of the tower. The patient was harnessed and lowered with a rescuer safely to the ground. Fire crews and Emergency Health Services personnel worked together to transfer the patient to ambulance. Fire crews disassembled the rope systems and lowered all gear and equipment back to the ground.

The Calgary Fire Department Technical Rescue team is a specialized team trained in advance rescue skills which include high-angle and low-angle rope rescue, building collapse, confined space, mechanical entrapment and vehicle extrication and trench rescues. These team members perform these duties in addition to front line firefighting and emergency response that every fire station in Calgary provides. The Technical Rescue teams are deployed out of the Briar Hill Fire Station # 10 and Windsor Park Fire Station #11.

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