A Cincinnati firefighter was injured after falling 10 feet through a hole while battling a blaze Monday.
The fall happened as crews were responding to a fire that broke out at a residential building in the city's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, WLWT-TV reports. While trying to put out the flames, a firefighter dropped through "an open shaft where there should have been a staircase," District Fire Chief Nate Cash told the TV station.
"(The injured firefighter) suffered multiple broken ribs, broken back, some contusions, and some other injuries, other broken bones," said Cincinnati Firefighters Union, Local 48 President Matt Alter, adding that the firefighter has been with the department about 10 years and has a wife and children.
The fire appears to have started when someone entered the unsecured building and started a fire to stay warm, Cash said. Even though it was a small blaze, the smoke and lack of light created a treacherous situation that led to the fall.
"It's dark, it is smoky, and that's just not something you expect to find, even in a building under renovation," Cash told WLWT about the open shaft. "If they're doing work like that and you have an open shaft, there should have been some sort of railway, railing system up around that hole to prevent something like that. But it is definitely a danger that we deal with all the time."
