Batesburg-Leesville, SC (Paul Kirby) For many years, firefighters have lived with a public perception that they spent a lot of time getting stranded cats out of trees. Last week, firefighters from the Batesburg-Leesville, assisted by a specially equipped fire truck out of Lexington, were called on to rescue a man, not a cat, that was stranded up high.
According to the Batesburg-Leesville FD, a bucket truck from the SC Department of Transportation was doing some work on Caughman Street in the area when something went wrong. The bucket of the device got stuck in the extended position with an employee in it.
Firefighters from Batesburg-Leesville responded, but after a quick assessment, they realized that the best truck for the rescue was Tower 10 out of Lexington. That truck has a basket attached to its hydraulically powered ladder that will hold several men. It is specially built for rescuing people from high places.
Once Tower 10 arrived, its operators set it up, raised it with one firefighter in the basket, and plucked the DOT employee from his perch high above the street. The SCDOT employee wasn’t injured, although his nerves may have been a bit frayed, and a qualified mechanic responded to repair the DOT truck that had malfunctioned.
