Man cleaning steeple in Lowndesboro area rescued with aerial ladder
Published 8:15 pm Friday, September 13, 2013
By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal
Montgomery Assist Fire Chief K. D. Gordon said the Montgomery Fire Department responded with a district chief and ladder truck from Station 6 to Baptist Hill Baptist Church in the Lowndesboro area Friday afternoon on rescue call using a 110-foot aerial ladder.
Dennis Blair of the Lowndesboro Volunteer Fire Department said the Hayneville Fire Department responded to a call about a man who was doing some work on the Baptist Hill church steeple in a bucket truck and who got stuck in the air.
Hayneville Fire Chief Jesse McCall said while his department’s ladder truck could the man he identified as Henry Smith, who had been steam cleaning the church steeple, it was not made for fire rescue but firefighting. He said the Montgomery Fire Truck had a safety rail, which the individual was more comfortable climbing out on.
Hayneville Fire Chief Jesse McCall said Henry Smith, a deacon at Baptist Hill Baptist Church, was steam cleaning the steeple at the church when his bucket truck left him stuck 50 feet in the air. He was rescued by the Montgomery Fire Department without injury or incident. Dennis Blair of the Lowndesboro Volunteer Fire Department took this photo of the rescue.
Gordon said the call came in at 4:30 p.m. He said the individual was about 50-foot up and “had been struck up in the air for three to three and one half hours.” He said there were no injuries and “The rescue went without incident.”
