First responders with regional technical rescue teams walk across a training site in Manatee County on Tuesday morning. Crews were conducting a routine exercise just feet away from a city water tower when an emergency rescue call unfolded.
BRADENTON, Fla. - Bradenton fire crews rescued an injured maintenance worker from a local water tower on Tuesday morning after the man became trapped during a sandblasting operation.
Bradenton water tower rescue
What we know:
Firefighters with the Bradenton Fire Department and technical rescue crews from Manatee County were conducting a routine training exercise off of 59th Street when an emergency unfolded right next to them.
A maintenance worker inside the nearby city water tower, preparing to sandblast the tank, fell a few feet, injuring his leg and leaving him trapped high off the ground.
Because regional technical rescue teams were already working just feet away at Station 3, first responders instantly deployed their gear to execute a specialized high-angle rescue.
"The worker was inside, from what we were told, sandblasting and preparing for sandblasting, the inside of the water tank," explained Bradenton Fire Department Chief Tim Geer.
Emergency crews guide an injured maintenance worker onto a stretcher inside a Bradenton water tower on Tuesday morning. The patient remained conscious throughout the rescue and was taken to a local hospital for a leg evaluation.
The entire rescue operation took less than an hour to safely lower the conscious worker back to the ground. Bradenton Fire Department Lt. Thomas Ferrett credited the fast outcome to seamless teamwork on a scenario that first responders routinely prepare for.
"This is a high-risk, low-frequency call," Ferrett said. "Something that we train for but don’t really do these calls very often."
Ferrett added, "It makes me feel really good. I couldn’t have done it without my team, that was already here setting up for the high angled rescue. Who showed up on scene, had everything in place. We went in and got him and lowered him down to the ground."
The worker was taken to a local hospital to have his leg evaluated. Geer expressed pride in how quickly the training exercise turned into a successful real-world rescue.
"Whenever you’re talking about having to climb a ladder to get out of the tank, that becomes problematic," Geer said. "We train often, we stay prepared. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome and performance of everybody here on the scene."
A city water tower off of 59th Street sits next to Bradenton Fire Department's Station 3 on Tuesday morning. Emergency crews deployed a specialized high-angle rescue to retrieve a maintenance worker trapped inside the structure.
Manatee County medical updates
What we don't know:
Officials did not confirm the exact identity of the maintenance worker or the name of the company he works for. It is also unknown how long his recovery will take or if his injury was officially diagnosed as an ankle fracture after hospital evaluation.
Emergency responder training history
The backstory:
Technical rescue teams across Manatee County consistently train for high-risk, low-frequency emergencies so they can respond to specialized infrastructure hazards.
Chief Geer noted that while crews always stay prepared for these precise scenarios, they did not expect a real-world rescue call to happen right in front of them during a standard practice session.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from Bradenton Fire Department Chief Tim Geer, who explained how the rescue unfolded, as well as Bradenton Fire Department Lt. Thomas Ferrett.