By Skies Magazine | December 18, 2013 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 55 seconds.
An RCAF helicopter crew is being praised as heroic after completing the dramatic rescue of a crane operator trapped at the end of a boom 180 feet above a raging fire in Kingston, Ont., yesterday afternoon.
The crew, flying in a CH-146 Griffon from 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron at nearby CFB Trenton, received the call as firefighters attempted to control the blaze, which had engulfed a wooden student housing building under construction in downtown Kingston—a structure dubbed a “tinderbox” at a recent city planning meeting. With flames reaching up to the crane operator’s box, the worker had no choice but to climb across the boom and await rescue. But with the crane being out of reach of the firefighters below, the rescue attempt was to come from above.
Despite being buffeted by hot thermals, the Griffon held a steady hover about 10 to 15 feet above the boom, as search and rescue technician Sgt. Cory Cisyk was lowered to the stranded worker. Ciysk said he was not distracted by the scene and events unfolding underneath him.
“The poor gentleman was quite scared, and hanging on for dear life, as we say, so he had to be convinced to let go and give himself up to the search-and-rescue (SAR) technician,” LCol Jean Bernier, commanding officer of 424 Squadron, told the National Post.
Cisyk attached a rescue hoist to the terrified worker, and the crew lifted them both to safety. The worker was taken directly to hospital with minor injuries.
Working alongside Ciysk on the mission were aircraft commander Capt David Agnew, first officer Capt Jean-Benoit Girard-Beauseigle, flight engineers Cpl Iain Cleaton, and SAR tech Master Cpl Matthew Davidson.
“Our biggest concern was getting there before he fell off or the crane fell,” Agnew told the QMI Agency. “We were pretty happy to pull it off. . . . We do this kind of training all the time on water and on land and with boats, but we never expect to do it from a crane.”
The fire was deemed contained a couple of hours later, but affected many surrounding buildings including a Howard Johnson hotel, a Royal Canadian Legion, a nearby duplex, and several vehicles parked nearby. Police say all the construction workers on site have been accounted for.
