A cellphone antenna repairman was rescued early Wednesday after he slipped while working on a tower south of Cotati and became suspended about 50 feet in the air, firefighters said.
The man was working on the antenna resembling a farmhouse water tank near Old Redwood Highway at about 1 a.m. when he lost his footing in the fog, said Herb Wandel, battalion chief for the Rancho Adobe Fire Protection District.
He fell about 4 feet before his fall was broken by his harness, Wandel said.
The man hung upside down for a brief time and was righted by a co-worker, he said.
However, the co-worker was unable to get him down and the man remained hanging in the air for about 40 minutes, Wandel said.
Firefighters climbed the tower with their own ropes and rescued him, the battalion chief said.
The man, whose name was not available, was not hurt. Wandel believed he was a contractor for AT&T.
“He was a little shaken, but he was uninjured,” Wandel said.
Nine Rancho Adobe firefighters responded. They had been practicing rope rescue training earlier in the evening, just hours before the incident.
Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.
Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.
He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.
