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Photo: Jens Herkströter / dpa
A mild end to an emergency at a height of 45 meters: with a pinched leg, a man had to wait for several hours on a Saturday night in a blast furnace in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Hattingen.
After more than three hours of work, the young man was freed from the blast furnace of the Westphalian industrial museum Henrichshütte (Ennepe-Ruhr district) by a total of 45 firefighters and rescue workers, said the Hattingen fire brigade.
An unknown person discovered the man and notified the emergency services.
They then went upstairs to the man via a set of stairs. On site, it turned out that the man had got his leg between the outer parapet and a pipe. He suffered injuries to his leg. Since his leg was trapped, he was unable to get out of the predicament on his own. He was initially taken care of by an emergency doctor upstairs. At the same time, emergency services had brought electric cutting equipment and accessories to the blast furnace. Part of the parapet was removed with a power cutter to free the man's injured leg.
In order to transport it to the ground as gently as possible, the height rescue service of the Essen fire brigade was also alerted.
These specialists would have prepared everything for a safe transport of the injured person.
The man was then roped down well secured in a carrying basket on the outside of the blast furnace, accompanied by a height rescuer.
Then he was taken to a special clinic in Bochum.
Even when asked, a fire department spokesman could not answer why the man was on the furnace that night.
The exact age of the man was also unknown.
At the time of use, the temperature was around seven degrees.
According to the fire brigade, the museum must check whether and with what restrictions the blast furnace is accessible to visitors.
nis / dpa / AFP
