Dec. 15--ALTAMONT -- Rescue crews rushed to Gilberton Power Co., a cogeneration plant in West Mahanoy Township, late Saturday morning to assist a worker who fell inside a cooling tower, according to a supervisor at Schuylkill County Communications Center, Pottsville.
"He is hung up on his safety harness. They can't tell how far up in the tower he is. They're going to have to do some rappelling to get to him," a communications supervisor said over the police scanner at 11:25 a.m.
D. M. Prosick, assistant chief at Altamont Fire Company, said the responders did not have to do any rappelling. They were able to rescue the worker with ladders and a stokes basket, Prosick said.
"He was wearing his helmet. He had his safety harness on. And he never fell or hit his head. He had injuries but they were not life-threatening," Prosick said Saturday afternoon.
The fall victim was taken to a local hospital, according to the communications supervisor, but he and Prosick had no further information on the man's condition Saturday afternoon.
Gilberton Power Company's John B. Rich Memorial Power Station, run by Reading Anthracite's Rich Family of Companies, generates more than 590 million-kilowatt hours of electricity per year for sale to Pennsylvania Power and Light, according to its website at readinganthracite.com
The incident occurred just after 11 a.m. Saturday at the plant, based at 81 Eleanor Ave., West Mahanoy Township, near Frackville. The call came in at 11:09 a.m. Saturday, according to a communications supervisor.
Responders included Frackville Ambulance, Shenandoah Ambulance, and firefighters from Altamont, Frackville and Mahanoy City, according to the supervisor.
"The workers there already had ladders set up there," Prosick said.
Prosick said responders used those ladders to climb up to the fall victim.
"He was unable to come down on his own," Prosick said.
The responders tied the fall victim to a "stokes basket," he said.
A stokes basket is a wire basket in the shape of a human body which an injured, sick or disabled person can be safely strapped, according to the website for Merriam-Webster.
Then responders lowered the fall victim down and out of the cooling tower, Prosick said.
"It took about an hour until extrication was complete," Prosick said.
Copyright 2013 - Republican & Herald, Pottsville, Pa.
