Firefighters responded on Monday at 3:51 p.m. to a 911 call from a bystander at a cell tower site in the 4900 block of West Price Road, NE in Suwanee. The caller said that the victim was more than 100 feet above ground and stranded on a cell tower.
Crews found the worker suspended in the air near the top of the tower.
The worker was ascending the tower when he experienced an injury and was unable to self-extricate, according to the Gwinnett County Fire Services Department.
Firefighters were immediately met by a representative at the tower site who advised them that two contract climbers made access to the man, but needed the fire department’s assistance with getting him to the ground.
Rope rescue technicians from the fire department’s Technical Rescue Team assessed the situation and readied a TRT member to scale the tower to reach the victim. Upon gaining access, the worker was found to be conscious, alert and breathing.
The TRT member, along with the contract climbers rigged a rescue harness and belay line to safely lower the man to the ground. Paramedics transported the man to the hospital for further medical evaluation. He was reportedly part of a third-party contract crew that was doing work on the tower. The Fire-PIO is unable to identify the injured worker due to federal patient privacy laws.
May 8, 2019
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