Man injured after falling through scaffolding trap door

A man has fallen through a ladder trap door from the third lift of scaffolding near Newton Abbot, Devon.

The man fell through the third lift of scaffolding landing on the second below. He was in severe pain with a badly-dislocated shoulder and suspected broken arm after the fall.

According to news reports from thisissouthdevon Two fire crews from Newton Abbot, one from Torquay and the specialist rescue team from Exeter were all called.

Incident commander Rob Cude from Newton Abbot said: “The man was working on scaffolding on the roof and he had slipped down from the third floor to the level below.

“He was in quite considerable pain with a very nasty injury.

“We were called by the ambulance height and rescue team and it was a really good example of team work.

“We pitched a ladder at quite a shallow angle from the first floor down to the grass in the front garden.

“We were trying to find a way to bring him down smoothly without aggravating his injury.

“We used the Torquay safety at height and confined spaces team and the specialist team from Exeter who rigged up a method of lowering him down on a sliding stretcher to guide him down smoothly. It was one of the first times we’ve had that ambulance HART team and ourselves all working together and it worked brilliantly.”