ARLINGTON, TEXAS, FIREFIGHTERS WERE FACED WITH A CHALLENGING rescue Thursday morning at the new Dallas Cowboys domed stadium. Two roofing workers who were repairing fabric roof seams on the exterior of the dome both started slipping and slid approx. 25o feet along the sloped roof before they were caught on the guttering around the edge.
The nearest Arlington fire station is close by and when they arrived they immediately activated the Technical Rescue Team to handle the rescue that was about 300 ft. above the ground.
WFAA-TV has an excellent video report that illustrates how the accident occurred:
The Dallas Morning News reports:
Fire officials said that the men appeared to be wearing safety harnesses but that the harnesses were not attached to the roof.
The more seriously injured worker, whose name was not released, had a broken leg and chest and head injuries and had lost consciousness, fire officials said. He was taken by helicopter to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. An update on his condition was not available Thursday night.
WFAA-TV identified the other man as Jose Hernandez. He called 911 from his cellphone to report the accident just after 7 a.m. He was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth by ambulance. In the 911 recording obtained by WFAA, Hernandez said he had injured his neck and hands. “We came sliding down the entire roof until we hit the bottom,” he told the dispatcher.
Part of the rescue team went to the dome and advanced down to where the injured workers were caught. From there they packaged the victims into Stokes baskets and then lowered them down to a roof deck where they were then carried into the building and removed via regular pathways.
Dallas Morning News
An AFD spokesman said that the T. R. team has drilled constantly in the stadium starting when construction first began. “There are unique features to the stadium that need to be understood from a rescue perspective,” he said. “They are very familiar with the stadium.”
The Associated Press filed this raw video from KDFW of the rescue operation:
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