Dramatic Rescue Saves A Homeless Man After Fall
Posted August 6, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Toronto and a weekend of celebration was continuing across the city.
But in the midst of it all a sombre situation emerged, and a dramatic rescue was needed to save a homeless man from what might have been a horrible death in the downtwon core.
Toronto firefighters saved the day after the victim fell down a shaft at the University of Toronto. It’s reported the man, in his 30s, had built a makeshift home between a building’s exterior and its ventilation system.
Inside the tight space at College and St. George he discovered he could stand up and move around, but it was when he decided to try to scale the wall that he slipped just before 5pm.
After falling onto another ledge, he lay largely incapacitated and in desperate need of help.
“The gentleman’s very, very lucky,” said EMS District Supervisor Gord Webster.
“If he had missed that ledge by about another five feet he would’ve gone down another 70 feet and who knows what might have happened.”
Luckily, real disaster was narrowly averted and thanks to some quick thinking by the victim, a rescue was made possible.
The man started a garbage fire in order to draw attention to himself, but once firefighters successfully cleared the smoke and debris, he was pulled to safety using what’s known as a “high angle rescue.”
“It was a tight squeeze to get in there,” said Toronto Firefighter Kevin Scragg.
“It didn’t give us a whole lot of room to work up top, but once we were down there was a good 20 foot by 20 foot ledge.”
The man may have broken his ankle, but the good news is that University police say they’ll make sure the ventilation shaft is sealed so no one else can get inside in the future.
