Palm Coast Firefighters Rescue Utility Services Employee from Top of Tower

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on August 7, 2017

Around 2:10 on Wednesday afternoon, firefighters with the Palm Coast Fire Department and the Flagler County Fire Rescue arrived at Palm Coast’s primary water tower. The tower, a 150-foot monstrosity, had been undergoing general maintenance by members of the Utility Services for Palm Coast. That day, temperatures in Palm Coast began to spike, and by the early afternoon they were well into the zone of danger. Although the employees of Utility Services were inside the tower and away from the harmful rays of the sun, they were still trapped in a confined space without air conditioning, where the temperatures began rising well above the recorded outside temperature.

The reason that the emergency crews arrived at the water tower was that Chris Young, one of the members of Utility Services, had become ill while working inside of the tower. He and two co-workers were at the tower’s apex, at the hottest point of the tower, when he began showing signs of illness. His co-workers, acting swiftly and responsibly, called 911. Members of the two fire squads arrived shortly thereafter and began assessing the situation.

Due to the height of the tower, getting a sick person down from the top immediately becomes a nearly impossible situation. A narrow ladder is the only way to access the top of the tower, and this is far from adequate if a person needs assistance from the top to the bottom. While they formulated their rescue plan, eight members of the fire rescue teams ascended the tower to begin administering medical care to the man. This included providing Young with water.

The solution to retrieving Young from the tower was a rescue harness attached to the thin ladder rising up the inside of the tower. Young was carefully lowered down the ladder to the bottom of the tower where an ambulance team was waiting to transport him immediately to the hospital. The entire process took about 30 minutes, with the ambulance departing from the tower and towards the hospital around 4:40.

It is believed that Young is recovering well, although no official report has been issued regarding the specifics the emergency or his condition.

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.