SANTA ANA (CNS) - Orange County firefighters today rescued a worker who was hanging onto a safety harness on the side of the federal immigration building in Santa Ana.
The 48-year-old man, who was repairing concrete on the side of the U.S. Immigration, Customs and Enforcement building on Santa Ana Boulevard at Parton Street, was lowering himself down, along with a co-worker, when his safety line got stuck at the seventh floor, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Tony Bommarito. The other worker got down safely.
Firefighters sent to the scene at 7:53 a.m. called for four technical rescue trucks and initially considered breaking a window on the seventh floor, but decided the shattering glass might injure the worker, Bommarito said.
Crews went to the roof of the building and lowered a firefighter down to help free the trapped worker, whose name was not released. Firefighters on the roof then lowered both down, the captain said.
“This is what we call a high-risk, low frequency incident,” Bommarito said. “They don't happen very often.”
The worker was OK and declined a trip to a hospital, he said.