Two construction workers found themselves stranded on Monday, high above the Ann Arbor streets near the ninth floor of an under-construction building. The workers were left in a precarious position when the boom truck they were operating near The Verve Ann Arbor, a new housing development primarily serving University of Michigan students, experienced a mechanical failure that locked the lift's bucket in place.
Efforts to rescue the workers commenced after the Ann Arbor Fire Department was called to the scene at about 2 p.m., some two and a half hours following the equipment's initial breakdown, as stated by the City of Ann Arbor Fire Department. Amidst their terrain of steel and concrete, the crew faced a vertical challenge as their tallest ladder on a truck reaches about 100 feet, falling short for rescue operations for locations above the seventh floor, according to the fire department's social media post.
The rescue mission involved a multi-faceted approach, leveraging external and internal strategies. While the ladder truck, despite expert placement, extended 10 feet shy of the bucket's height, an interior crew worked to navigate the architectural confines safely. "The inside crew was able to remove the interior window trim and remove the glass without having to break the window," the City of Ann Arbor Fire Department revealed in their social media update. This action allowed the two workers safe passage back into the building framework.
