SCDF pulls off crane rescue with planning, teamwork

When a man injured his leg while working in a tower crane 70m up in the air, a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (Dart) and a group of firefighters had to figure out the safest way to bring him down.

Their eventual plan required more than two hours to be set in place, but it proved a masterstroke, as they took just five minutes to get the worker down to the ground.

Speaking to The Straits Times yesterday, Lieutenant Ahmad Faizal Abdul Hanan, 45, the Dart rota commander who oversaw the operation, said: "The team did well because they did the assessment and everyone performed their tasks, which led to good planning and a successful rescue."

Lt Ahmad Faizal was among the Dart specialists and SCDF firefighters who spoke to ST about the rescue operation at a construction site in Beach Road last Friday.

Sergeant 3 Keith Lye, who is cross-trained as an emergency medical technician, and a fellow firefighter were the first to reach the stricken worker, climbing up a cat ladder and proceeding to treat him while keeping steady on a metre-wide platform of the crane.

He said: "The worker was groaning in pain. We suspected his right shin was fractured and had to immobilise the injury to prevent further aggravation."

Two Dart specialists then made their way up with rescue equipment and a 200m-long rope as the mission to lower the injured man kicked into motion. They secured the rope to the crane, and Dart specialists on the ground attached a battery-operated power ascender to it - the device helps rescuers ascend and descend.

Finding a landing spot for the rescuers and the worker in the construction site was another hurdle.

Said Dart section commander Warrant Officer 2 Azmir Ali Ameer Ali: "There was scaffolding all around. We decided the top of the multi-storey carpark (alongside) Shaw Tower was the most viable option, as it was vertically below, even though we had to clear a portion of the scaffolding."

With the landing area cleared, Dart specialist Warrant Officer 1 Muhammad Umar Al-Siddiq Abdul Rahman rappelled down with the worker, who was secured on a rescue stretcher, negotiating a few steel beams jutting out of the crane.

Said WO1 Umar, 34: "At this point, the injured man is facing out and he is seeing this at a height, so I had to constantly assure him that he was safe."

Safely on the ground, the worker was taken to Singapore General Hospital. The entire rescue operation took 2hr 45min and involved 25 personnel from the SCDF.