A contractor escaped serious injury on Thursday when he fell onto the roof of a grainery while working on an antenna tower in south suburban Frankfort.
Residents including Sue Wayda praised emergency responders for getting the man down from the Frankfort Grainery tower safely.
"It is a happy ending," she said. "We're glad he is ok. They say it's just a broken arm. Great job, happy ending."
The incident happened around 2:30 p.m. near Elwood and White Streets in downtown Frankfort. A 28-year-old man was working on the antenna tower for a third-party company when he fell.
“He was on top of the roof had about a 15 foot fall with a severe arm injury,” said Frankfort Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Paul Kinsella. “We quickly made contact with him via cellphone.”
The man was seriously hurt and told them he couldn’t get back down on his own.
Technical rescue teams were called and orchestrated a plan to get him down from the tower.
“It was determined we had to go through the inside down into another window and then onto the tower ladder,” Kinsella said.
Rescue crews were able to move the contractor onto a stretcher and began the process of lowering him down. Fire officials said the man was lowered from the roof into the tower, moved down three levels then handed out the window approximately 80 feet in the air to firefighters in the tower ladder.
“He was doing okay, you could tell he was in a lot of pain, but he was able to give us all his medical history and everything like that without any problems,” Kinsella said.
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Witnesses watched nervously as firefighters lowered the worker to the ground.
“We were cheering, we started clapping and yelling because they got him down, and we’re happy he’s not badly hurt,” said Wayda.
The deputy chief said the technical rescue teams run trough scenarios and train for such situations. Given the amount of ice and snow on the roof, he said the situation could have been much worse.
“We’re glad we’re able to complete the mission without any issues and no firefighters were injured,” he said. “A little cold, but it’s not cold like it’s going to be next week.”
The man was taken to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, where he was listed in stable condition. Investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were at the scene talking to witnesses and taking pictures as part of an investigation into what caused the fall.
