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ND – A worker who experienced a medical emergency while he was inside a water tower was rescued by Jamestown Fire Department firefighters on Thursday, June 25.

Jamestown Fire Chief Jim Reuther said the man was about 150 feet up just below the bulb of the Stutsman County Rural Water District’s water tower next to Titan Machinery.

The worker was reportedly with a contracting firm that was building the tower for Stutsman County. Other workers were painting the base of the water tower at the time of the medical emergency.

Rescue Commander Lt. Mark Urquhart and Lt. Sheldon Mohr were tethered to safety lines and made their way to the top of the tower in a construction cart. A Stokes stretcher was sent up on a line and Mohr and Urquhart secured the victim when he was not able to climb out on his own.

Meanwhile, a crane belonging to Dan Poland Machine Inc. was located nearby and Jamestown police escorted the rig to the scene to assist in the rescue. The crane hoisted a basket with firefighter Josh Smaage inside it to the water tower’s top doorway where the victim was transferred and brought down to waiting medical personnel for transport to JRMC at about 7 p.m. No other injuries were reported.

This was the first time that Reuther could recall the Jamestown Fire Department was called to a 150-foot-high water tower extrication. But he said the department rescued someone on a 130-foot scaffolding in Eldridge about two years ago.

Photo courtesy of the InForum.
Photo courtesy of the INFORUM.