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Crime & Safety

Calgary Firefighters Rescue Construction Worker After 30-Foot Manhole Fall in NW

A construction worker was rescued after falling approximately 30 feet into an excavation pit at a northwest Calgary water infrastructure project. The worker was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

By Shawn McKenzie · Calgary News Live

Calgary Fire Department fire truck parked outside a fire station. File photo used to illustrate a firefighter rescue in northwest Calgary.

A Calgary Fire Department fire truck is pictured at a fire station. This image is used to illustrate the rescue of a construction worker in northwest Calgary and does not depict the actual incident. File photo.

davebloggs007 / Wikimedia Commons

Image licence: CC-BY-2.0. Image source. Image resized from the original.

A construction worker was pulled to safety after plunging roughly 30 feet down a manhole at a building site in the 8000 block of 34 Avenue N.W.

Calgary Fire Department crews were called to the scene at about 8:40 a.m. for a confined space rescue. Firefighters used air-monitoring equipment to reach the worker safely and began treating and stabilizing the person in preparation for extraction.

The department's Technical Rescue Team set up a rope rescue system to bring the worker out of the confined space. Once the patient had been stabilized and secured for transport, crews used the rope system to complete the extraction.

Alberta Health Services then took over care of the patient, who was taken to hospital in stable condition.

Calgary Police Service also responded to assist at the site. Because the incident involved an injury on the job, Occupational Health and Safety was notified and was on its way to investigate.

The Calgary Fire Department credited the combined work of all the responding agencies for the rescue's success.