Then, less than a third of the way into his shift Wednesday, he was called to the new arena under construction uptown and asked to dangle from a crane more than 40 feet above ground.
A worker who had been fitting glass windows three stories up had been injured about 3:30 p.m., said Charlotte Fire Capt. David Moore, when a lift carrying the man tipped at the northwest corner of the construction site.
The machine's extended boom crashed into the building. Three windows shattered, firefighters said. The blow bent some metal framing.
And the force flung the worker, whose identity authorities would not release, inside the basket he stood in high above ground.
A safety harness prevented him from falling out of the high-flying lift, authorities said. But the crash had knocked him into the basket's railing.
Workers and rescuers on the ground did not know how badly the man had been hurt. Someone had to get him out.
Mitchell, who said he had done such a rescue once before, strapped into a harness. Firefighters secured the tipped lift, then attached Mitchell to a crane and hoisted him into the air.
High above ground, Mitchell recalled asking the man how he was doing. The worker told him his name. He told him he was in his 40s, and from Honduras. He said his ribs hurt. But he remained in good spirits, Mitchell said.
Mitchell helped attach him into a new harness, one that didn't run across his injured chest, then hooked him to the crane.
The crane lowered the men. They touched ground almost an hour after the lift had tipped. The man was taken to Carolinas Medical Center, and authorities expected him to recover.
Mitchell then geared up for the remaining 16 hours of his shift. "You never know what you are going to be asked to do," he said.
STAFF WRITER RICHARD RUBIN CONTRIBUTED TO THIS STORY
While Wednesday's accident will require some repairs to the building, the city's arena project manager, William Haas, said the arena remains on budget and scheduled to open on time this fall.Through the end of 2004, seven accidents have caused employees to miss work since construction began on the $265 million arena, Haas said .
"In general, I think, we're running a safe job," Haas told the Observer. "We're doing really well over there."
The N.C. Occupational Safety & Health Division was called to investigate what caused the construction equipment to tip on Wednesday.
