‘Ottawa’ Stunning Images Capture Woman Perched on Downtown Toronto Crane — and her Dramatic Rescue
TORONTO — A woman who got stuck atop part of a construction crane in downtown Toronto for hours was rescued Wednesday morning after being strapped to a firefighter and rappelled to the ground.
Streets in the area were blocked off and bystanders packed nearby sidewalks to watch the drama unfold.
The woman had been perched on a gently swaying large pulley device — measuring only about 15 centimetres by 60 centimetres — for at least four hours and was clinging to a steel cable when a rescuer reached her.
“It’s an outstanding success,” Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg said of the operation. “We train for this, although we’ve never seen one like this before.”
Pegg said crews were called to the scene at a construction site on Wellesley Street near Yonge Street at about 4 a.m.
A rescue worker began climbing up the crane around 6 a.m. and rappelled down to the woman on the pulley device around 8 a.m., Pegg said.
The firefighter then carefully strapped himself to the woman and the pair were slowly lowered to the ground about half an hour later. Cheers erupted from the gathered crowd as their feet hit the ground.
The woman was then handcuffed by police and was handed over to paramedics.
“She was brought down safely, she didn’t appear to be in any distress,” Pegg said. “This was a very technical, very complex rescue.”
Fire crews have said there was no immediate indication as to why the woman climbed the crane.
Earlier, platoon chief Kevin Shaw described to reporters at the scene how the woman became stranded.
“We have about a mid-20s female who has crawled up the crane, crawled out on the end of it and slid down that cable to the big hook that she’s on right now,” Shaw said.
“We have a firefighter going up now … it’s a slow, tedious process, but it’s a safe process for our firefighter.” said Shaw.
“He’s going up the interior of the crane right now. Once he gets to the top, he’s going to secure himself (and) hopefully lower himself down onto the position where the female is and put her in a harness. We’re waiting for a crane operator to get here (and) we may lower the crane a little bit.”
Toronto police said the woman is facing a mischief charge.