A BADLY-injured builder who had become trapped after falling into a basement was rescued by firemen with special abseiling equipment. The 62-year-old man, from Shillington in Bedfordshire, was working on a building site at Amwell Farm in Nomansland, Wheat

A BADLY-injured builder who had become trapped after falling into a basement was rescued by firemen with special abseiling equipment.

The 62-year-old man, from Shillington in Bedfordshire, was working on a building site at Amwell Farm in Nomansland, Wheathampstead, yesterday (Thursday) when he fell from a ladder into the basement of a half-built house. at around 1.30pm suffering head and back injuries.

The man suffered head and back injuries and was unable to climb up the ladder which was the only way out of the basement.

Ambulance crews were unable to get him out so they called the fire service.

It took firefighters with the help of paramedics an hour-and-a-half to carefully lift the man, who had suspected spinal injuries, out of the basement on a stretcher board using special equipment.

Herts Fire Service Wheathampstead watch commander Paul Enever said: "He was quite a heavy chap and it took about eight men to push and pull him out of the basement. The ambulance people had to keep him quite still because of the nature of his injuries."

Paul explained that the Rope Access equipment employed was similar to abseiling gear and could be used to perform rescues on high points such as tower cranes or scaffolding for example if firemen needed to abseil to get down to a person or if they needed to rescue an injured casualty who was high up.

East of England Ambulance Service spokesman Gary Sanderson said the man was stabilised by the ambulance crew. After the rescue he was taken to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage.