Two construction workers were rescued from a collapsed scaffolding on Wednesday that was hanging from the 12th and 13th floor of the DeMarcay in Sarasota.
The Sarasota County Fire Department responded to a high-angle technical rescue in the area of S. Palm Avenue and Main Street, where construction scaffolding had collapsed and was hanging off the side of the building at 11:21 a.m. One person was transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, and a second person was released at the scene with no injuries.
Travis Dagenais, Sarasota County Fire Department Assistant Chief of Operations, said the two workers were wearing their safety harnesses but that they were dangling by their ropes on the side of the building. Crews were sent to the roof to make contact with the trapped workers, and they were able to pull one worker through a window and the other through the edge of the building.
Dagenais said rescue crews had to work within a tight space and created an exclusion zone in case the other scaffolding collapsed through various anchor points to get the crews safely up and down.