Two frightened workers hung on a high place and held on tightly after the collapse. Then rescuers came. -South Florida Sun Sentinel-South Florida Sun Sentinel

2021-12-06 09:05:56 By : Ms. Monica Pan

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On Wednesday, when Captain Christine Sargent arrived at the Hemisphere apartment in Hallandale Beach on the Broward Fire Rescue Engine 60, she saw two construction workers dangling from the 23-story building about 70 feet above the ground. Back and forth.

Members of the Fire Rescue Technical Rescue Team of the Broward Sheriff’s Office must complete 320 hours of training before they can apply for the elite team and find a way to keep workers safe.

The worker's scaffold partially collapsed during the stucco construction on the building. First responders received countless 911 calls about unstable situations.

"My main concern is to be able to reach them," said Sargent, who served as the incident commander, "and assure the victims that we will do everything we can to keep them safe and try to keep them calm."

That is not an easy task.

"They must be scared," Sargent said. "And it's uncomfortable."

A worker completely detached from the scaffolding and was hung in the air by his safety rope. He could only raise his hands above his head and grasp the rope tightly.

Another worker was on a partially collapsed scaffold and was fortunate to be able to put their weight on the equipment.

But this is a terrible situation for both workers.

The worker hanging on the rope is the top priority.

Due to the way the scaffolding collapsed and placed, the Technical Rescue Team (TRT) was unable to use the bucket of the ladder truck to let the worker climb up and put him on the ground.

"We decided to go to the roof and we are going to carry out a high-angle roof rescue," said TRT Captain Brendan Branagan.

Once the TRT has secured the rope, it will lower a rescuer to the first worker. Then they put the worker into their rope system and removed his rope.

However, due to the location of the scaffolding ropes, rescuers and workers could not go further.

TRT fixed the scaffolding and created a second rope system.

“The construction of the second rope system basically revolved around the collapsed scaffolding, and we dragged it back to the roof so that we could control more weight of the scaffolding,” Banagen said.

At this time, rescuers and workers were laid to the ground.

After the scaffolding was fixed, the main problem of rescuing the second worker was solved.

“They were able to get the No. 2 victim to climb onto the top of the scaffolding and enter the barrel, and then move the victim to the ground via the ladder truck at the scene,” Banagen said.

Branagan said there is no typical rescue. But for a unique reason, Wednesday’s efforts were different-the noise from the propellers of the news helicopter reporting the rescue was too loud, and it was difficult for rescuers to communicate with each other on the top of the building.

"In fact, we had to call our air rescuers and contact the other helicopters to get them back a little bit," Branagan said. "I have never experienced this before. This is the first time for me. Very interesting."

TRT focuses on five disciplines: structural collapse rescue; high-angle rope rescue; confined space rescue; trench excavation and support rescue; vehicle machinery and reentry rescue.

In most cases, TRT provides support to firefighters. If a firefighter falls to the ground, the TRT will provide rescue.

Branagan was also a member of the Florida Task Force 2. During his tenure, he was sent to the Surfside apartment collapse for 20 days during the summer.

"The difference I want to say is that we were able to carry out on-site rescues on Wednesday, while in Surfside, we were able to find families and close people," Branagan said.

"They all brought a good feeling, but it's really great to leave the phone and do a real on-site rescue."