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Man Rescued After Dangling 30 Feet
Incident Happens During Training On Adventure Course
POSTED: 3:59 pm CDT July 22,
2008
UPDATED: 6:08 pm CDT July 22,
2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A man is back on solid ground after hanging 30 feet in the air off a pole for over an hour on Tuesday afternoon in west Nashville.
Air 4 captured exclusive video of the rescue at the Cumberland Heights alcohol and drug treatment property off River Road.Jaime Garza and other staff at the treatment facility were going through training on an adventure course when the incident occurred.
Garza spoke with Channel 4 after he was rescued."I lost all of my upper body strength, and I just had to hang there, and my harness slipped underneath me. I was just hanging with the back of my legs," said Garza.He had gone up the pole to set something up but got stuck on the way down."He climbed up the pole and was coming back down the pole, and he had a belay system that basically secures him as he goes, so when he got tired he was kind of just hanging on a cable," said Jennifer Halverson of Adventureworks.The Nashville Fire Department responded to get him down. Firefighters said they secured him with a safety wire and then lowered him on to an extended truck ladder, a risky rescue."Anytime you are that high, it's a danger to everybody, and it's on a telephone poll about 45 feet in the air. Access is really hard," said Assistant Chief Lee Bergeron of the Nashville Fire Department.Garza was hanging in the air for about an hour and a half, but he said he put his trust in the firefighters, his co-workers and his faith to help bring him safely back to solid ground."The only thing that saved me was constant prayer and believing in my family," said Garza.Garza said he has never been afraid of heights and is more than ready to hit the adventure course again.He said the whole point of the course is for patients to give up their fears and put their trust in others. He said that holds true for him as well.The staff at Cumberland Heights say no patients were involved in the activities on Tuesday.
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