Chelsea Construction Site Accident: Firefighters Pull Injured Man From Hole

The Patch – December 22, 2016

by Simone Wilson (Patch Staff)

Emergency crews rushed to West 29th Street on “a report of someone who fell in a hole” Wednesday.

CHELSEA, NY — Fire trucks and ambulances rushed to 221 West 29th St. between 7th and 8th avenues just after 2 p.m. Wednesday on “a report of someone who fell in a hole” at a construction site, according to the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY).

After more than half an hour of maneuvering, emergency crews pulled the injured man from the hole and loaded him into an ambulance.

“He’s in stable condition, on the way to Bellevue Hospital,” an FDNY spokesman said at 2:45 p.m. “He’s still being checked out, but he apparently has some minor leg injuries. I’m not sure what else.”

One witness — a man who works in an office building on the block, but who didn’t want to give his name — told Patch that the injured person was a construction worker who “fell maybe 12 feet” and “might have broke his legs.”

A Twitter account that follows NYPD and FDNY radio scanners reported the hole was around 15 feet deep (see above). The FDNY could not immediately confirm this information.

The building going in at 221 West 29th St. is reportedly a 21-story, 95-unit apartment tower nearing completion. The developer of the project is CBSK Ironstate.

Twenty-nine NYC construction workers have died on the job so far in 2016. At a recent vigil for the fallen workers, City Council Member Jumaane Williams said: “Everyone is failing right now, and we can not just sit by while people die. There is no industry where 29 people would die, and everybody would just keep going on like it didn’t happen — and too often, the people who are dying are people who feel they have the least voice in this industry.”

Patch reached out to the 221 West 29th St. building manager (as listed in city records) for comment by phone and email Wednesday afternoon, but did not immediately hear back.

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