Emergency responders scaled a tower construction crane late Monday afternoon to rescue an injured worker stuck 40 meters above the ground.
At least 10 people were involved in the rescue mission at a Bartley construction site that involved ascending the crane with a ladder and hoisting a stretcher up by rope to carry the injured man down. It was not clear what had afflicted the unidentified worker, but the Singapore Civil Defence Force, or SCDF, said he was immobilized by an injury.
“A man who was working on a tower crane 40 meters in the air had injured his leg and was unable to head down to safety,” the SCDF said in a statement.
The operation began at about 4:25pm and took over an hour to complete. The force filmed part of it.
The minute-long clip shows four officers make their way up to the man using a ladder to while the rest transport the stretcher from below. The injured man was later brought safely to the ground and taken to Sengkang General Hospital.
Singapore’s construction sector is heavily reliant on migrant laborers and was able to resume operations last month after worker dormitories were declared clear of COVID-19 only to see new outbreaks at more than a dozen sites in recent days
Construction injuries are also common, with three fatalities reported in January alone.
In 2019, Singapore recorded 39 workplace fatalities, the lowest in 15 years. Thirteen of those deaths were at construction sites. Incidents of non-fatal injuries increased by 5%.
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