now let's head to oxen hill maryland
just south of our nation's capital
where a fiery crash on the woodrow
wilson bridge
left three construction workers hanging
on for dear life
this incident was captured on a
commuter's cell phone a traffic cam
a rescue helmet cam and a helicopter
camera giving us a unique
360 degree look at this incredible
rescue
a tractor trailer just lost control
striking several construction vehicles
and setting them ablaze
three maintenance men who'd been working
on the bridge's span inside the bucket
of their boom truck were left dangling
dangerously over the side of this bridge
unable to get to safety holy cow
these firefighters need to hurry to put
out the fire with every passing second
it spreads further along the arm of the
bum bucket
under the bridge see that basket right
there there's a worker
that's probably a fire if the arm breaks
the bucket will fall over 30 feet into
the water
with three men still trapped inside
these rescuers have to work together to
get the workers to safety
this is no easy feat a firefighter on
top of the bridge must signal to others
below
where to position the rescue line so
they can guide the workers onto a rescue
boat below
the firefighters drop ropes over the
side of the bridge to the trapped
workers below
who are already wearing harnesses they
are then ever so delicately lowered in
the harnesses to the boats
waiting in the water below
he's happy to be in the boat
two workers are saved and the rescuers
now have just one last man to say
the firefighters must work precisely
manually hoisting and maneuvering the
rescue lines
so they can successfully lower the
workers to boats
waiting in the river below
[Music]
they are so lucky look at that thing man
lucky is an understatement
the fiery accident backed up traffic for
more than 12 hours
but the three men made it out safely
thanks to the remarkable work of these
firefighters
joining me now lieutenant eddie payne
with the fairfax county fire and rescue
department
firefighters and emts robert elam and
joshua morrison as well
as master tech robert pickle gentlemen
welcome
lieutenant payne you were actually off
duty when you came across this chaos
what
what was going on yeah i was off duty
but at the time
even though i had my my fire gear i mean
there was really only
so much i could do so as i walked the
bridge
you know i was able to confirm that
there were at least four vehicles
involved
which i was able to get a glimpse of
three workers
directly down below the bridge they were
trapped wow just an
unimaginable situation to be and how did
you help these folks
nobody was there but us on that side
they already had harnesses on because
they were tied off in the bucket truck
through a rope to them got a rope to
them this all took an incredible amount
of teamwork how do you guys work in
tandem
in an emergency like this i think it was
good thinking on all of us the decision
was made that we're going to lower them
and then one by one two guys here to the
left and right of me
these guys were were key on to hold me
down
so overall how long did it take to get
those guys down to safety
all three of the individuals out of the
bucket and in the boats
below within 12 minutes so that was a
fantastic job on that
not something that those guys trained
for down there in the bucket the workers
and uh they listened to everything that
lieutenant fernandez said so that was
very good of them well i'm sure those
men are beyond grateful for
all your incredible work in saving their
lives thank you so much for joining us
and sharing your story
thanks for being a fan of rescue cam
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