SAN DIEGO (CNS) – Firefighters Friday came to the rescue of a worker who fell about 20 feet into an underground water-storage tank at a University City office building, breaking his leg.
The man had been helping recoat the inside of the buried cistern in the 8900 block of University Center Lane and was climbing a ladder to get out through a manhole when he slipped and plunged back in about 11 a.m., according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Emergency personnel went down into the tank, put a splint on the worker’s fractured limb, secured him to a backboard and hoisted him out, SDFRD spokesman Lee Swanson said. The process took a little over an hour.
Medics took the victim, who remained conscious and alert throughout the ordeal, to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.
The tank is part of a fire-suppression system that serves the building, according to Swanson.
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.
