Nightmare high up in the air: at night a man climbs on a blast furnace – and gets his leg trapped. He is lucky in an accident: people see him and alert the fire brigade.
Hattingen – Because of a trapped leg, a man had to wait several hours in the cold on Saturday night in a blast furnace in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Hattingen at a height of 45 meters.
After more than three hours of work, the young man was freed from the blast furnace of the Westphalian industrial museum Henrichshütte (Ennepe-Ruhr district) by a total of 45 firefighters and rescue workers, said the Hattingen fire brigade. An unknown person discovered the man and notified the emergency services.
Rescue at heights also in action
They then went up to the man via a set of stairs. On site, it turned out that the man had got his leg between the outer parapet and a pipe. He suffered injuries to his leg. Since his leg was trapped, he was unable to get out of the predicament on his own. He was initially taken care of by an emergency doctor upstairs. At the same time, emergency services had brought electric cutting equipment and accessories to the blast furnace. Part of the parapet was removed with a power cutter to free the man’s injured leg.
In order to transport it to the ground as gently as possible, the rescue team at the Essen fire brigade was also alerted. These specialists would have prepared everything for a safe transport of the injured person. In a special carrying basket, the man was then rappelled down outside the blast furnace in the company of a height rescuer, well secured. Then he was taken to a special clinic in Bochum.
Background so far unclear
A fire department spokesman could not answer why the man was on the furnace that night, even when asked. The exact age of the man was also unknown. At the time of use, the temperature was around seven degrees. According to the fire department spokesman, the blast furnace is not in danger of collapsing, even with the missing parapet, but the museum must check whether and with what restrictions the blast furnace is now accessible to visitors. dpa
