Indiana Firefighters Rescue Man Trapped on Tower

Emergency crews rescued a man early Thursday morning who had been on a paging and cell phone tower for more than 17 hours. Fire crews said Jeff Burnett, an employee of Advanced Computer & Communication Systems, was taken to a hospital where he was checked out after the rescue. Crews said he suffered from exhaustion, 6News' Julie Pursley reported. Burnett was up about 250 feet up on the tower to do some repairs. Investigators said Burnett was experienced with tower work. He had gone on the tower at about 10 a.m. on Wednesday and called his boss for help at about 7 p.m. "(He) had become too exhausted to make the descent by himself," said Frankfort fire Chief Greg Miller. The Frankfort Fire Department and rope rescue teams from the Lafayette and Indianapolis departments were called to the scene to assist with the rescue. "Lafayette had come over and assessed the situation and saw that they really didn't have the equipment that they needed," Miller said. "So, they contact IFD. IFD came down and had all the tools that they needed to get this gentleman down." The rescue was a lengthy process. Fire crews hooked up a pulley system and climbed the tower to get the man down. Crews on the ground controlled the descent and were able to get Burnett to safety at about 5:30 a.m. "When we were able to get him hooked up and start lowering him down, I think it brought his hopes up," said David Bogemann of IFD. Burnett had all of the safety equipment he needed and was strapped in a seat harness. He was alert and in good spirits when he was taken to the hospital, firefighters said. Burnett was listed in stable condition Thursday morning at a Frankfort hospital.