SCDF rescues worker stuck 40m up on crane

A 46-year-old Bangladeshi man working on a tower crane found himself suspended 40m up and unable to head down to safety, after injuring his leg in mid-air.

When alerted to the incident at a How Sun Drive construction site off Bartley Road on Monday at 4.25pm, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) sent firefighters and members of its elite division, the Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (Dart), to rescue him.

Four Dart specialists scaled a cat ladder to access the crane, before traversing across its narrow arm to reach the injured man, SCDF said yesterday in a Facebook post, accompanied with a video clip of the rescue.

The rescuers secured themselves and set up a lowering system with ropes and pulleys. One Dart specialist, who was cross-trained as an emergency medical technician, treated the man's wound while up on the crane.

Meanwhile, another team of Dart specialists on the ground prepared a stretcher and secured it to a rope that the team on the crane had prepared. Working in tandem, the two teams hoisted the stretcher to where the injured man was, before safely securing him to it.

One hour into the operation, a Dart specialist on the crane attached himself to the stretcher, which was then lowered to the ground in concert with the other specialists and firefighters. A paramedic assessed the man's injuries before he was taken to Sengkang General Hospital.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said the developer of the project at the site is Singhaiyi Huajiang Sun. The site occupier is China Construction (South Pacific) Development, while the injured worker's employer is Capital Cranes Global. MOM is investigating the incident.