Two Airlifted Out of 650-Foot Stack
Photo by Mel Goodwin
Two men stranded on a scaffold wedged inside a 650-foot smokestack— 250 feet from the top—were the subjects of an unusual helicopter rescue mission in Wisconsin.
The two workers were spraying Gunite on the inside of No. 2 smokestack at the Columbia Generating Plant near Portage. The inside diameter of the stack was about 17 feet and the traveling scaffold was suspended from three cables.
The men had started working at 8:30 a.m. last September 1 and at about 6:30 p.m., one of the cable hoists malfunctioned, causing the scaffold to tilt and wedge inside the stack at the 400-foot level. The scaffold blocked off any escape route down the stack and the men didn’t know if the scaffold would tilt some more and plunge them to their deaths. The workmen called for help via an intercom to the ground.
Help summoned
Officials of the company operating the generating plant, Wisconsin Power and Light, realized that it took a trained man four hours to climb to the top of the smokestack, so they immediately called Roto-Air, Inc., of Madison for a private helicopter. Further communications with the men indicated that additional help was necessary.
The Portage Fire Department was called for assistance at 7:20 p.m. The fire apparatus was returning to the station from a three-hour farmhouse fire. Two units responded directly to the generating plant, about 5 miles south of Portage. They arrived at 7:30 p.m. and Chief Clayton Simonson established a command post to coordinate the rescue effort. Simonson then directed that the Dane County Sheriff Rescue Squad and a Wisconsin Army National Guard helicopter from Truax Field be summoned to the scene.
The Madison Area Technical College fire service chairman, Mel Goodwin, was called at 8 p.m. and asked to respond with equipment and assistance. Larry Huber, colege rescue instructor, and Goodwin responded with all of the college’s rescue equipment.
Man put on catwalk
The Roto-Air helicopter arrived about 8 p.m. and the Truax Army National Guard helicopter arrived at 8:10. The Truax helicopter had a high intensity light mounted on the skids and provided light while the Roto-Air helicopter placed a man on the catwalk 20 feet from the top of the smokestack. As neither of these helicopters had winches, a cable sling was used underneath the helicopter to hoist personnel and equipment to the top of the stack. Ground to air communications were established with walkie-talkies on aircraft frequencies. An attempt was made by the Roto-Air helicopter to lower a man in a rescue basket into the stack, but this was not successful.
At 8:30, Madison Area Technical College’s rescue instructor and fire service chairman arrived on the scene. It was then decided to lower pompier belts to the men in the stack so they could secure themselves to a cable as a precaution against scaffold collapse. This was carried out by the men on the stack.
With the men on the scaffold now secure, time could be taken to discuss the best rescue methods. It was decided to contact the Coast Guard in Milwaukee to obtain a helicopter with stabilizing equipment and a 300-foot hoist. A telephone call was placed at 11 p.m. to the Coast Guard where it was learned that their only available hoist was only 80 feet long. The situation was discussed with the Coast Guard and they scrambled helicopters from the Chicago and Traverse City, Mich., areas. Also, an Iowa Army National Guard Chinook helicopter from Davenport that was believed to have a 300-foot winch on board was dispatched.
More copters arrive
At this point, the weather was starting to worsen. Light showers were falling but visibility was still good. A Wisconsin Army National Guard fuel tanker for the helicopters and a ground crew arrived at the site and these men helped prepare landing areas for the Coast Guard and Chinook helicopters. The Chicago Coast Guard helicopter landed at 1 a.m. and the Traverse City helicopter arrived at 1:30 a.m. The Iowa National Guard helicopter arrived in a cloud of dust at 2 a.m.
At this time, a discussion among the pilots, Simonson and the MATC rescue instructors took place, and it was discovered that the hoist on the Chinook was only 100 feet long. It was decided that the best possible way to rescue the men would be to manually lower the steel basket on a 300-foot, %-inch steel cable to the men in the stack. Then a Coast Guard helicopter would hover over the stack, use its 80-foot hoist to pick up the %-inch cable and fly vertically 300 feet directly above the stack to hoist the basket out. The lifting capacity of the helicopter would allow only one man in the basket at a time.
Five ironworker volunteers were placed on top of the smokestack by the Coast Guard helicopter, making a total of six men now on the stack. These men began the slow task of lowering the basket to the men. When this was completed and the cable secure, one of the men was ordered into the basket. This man had worked at this type of job for only nine months and was in a mild state of shock.
Cloud hampers lift
The Chicago Coast Guard helicopter then picked up the cable and slowly and deliberately rose an additional 300 feet, attempting to remain directly over the stack. Just prior to the basket clearing the stack, the helicopter entered the cloud cover, but it was committed and continued to rise blindly. The basket cleared the stack and the man was placed on the ground at 3:40 a.m.
He was immediately placed on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to Portage’s Divine Savior Hospital, where he was treated for shock and impaired circulation of the lower legs. He was later released with no severe problems.
The helicopter then returned the cable and the basket to the top of the smokestack and landed to be refueled. The Traverse City helicopter lifted off to return to Michigan but returned 10 minutes later unable to land at either Madison, Chicago or Michigan due to the weather conditions.
By the time the Coast Guard helicopter finished refueling, the ceiling had dropped to less than 600 feet. As this placed the top of the stack 50 feet in the clouds, it made further helicopter flights impossible at this time.
Rescue work suspended
Two of the men on the smokestack had climbed down immediately after the rescue of the first man. The remaining men hand-lowered the basket on the cable to the remaining man trapped in the stack. The cable was secured and the man belted himself into the basket.
At this point, the men on the stack attempted to climb down, but at a lower level the fumes from the adjacent smokestack became too toxic for them to continue. They returned to the catwalk at the top of the stack to await a wind change. About 5 o’clock, it started to rain quite heavily and the men on the stack elected to climb down rather than to risk exposure problems. They found that the rain had diluted the fumes enough to allow them to get to the ground. It took about 45 minutes for them to reach the ground.
At this time, all helicopter crews were transported by the Sheriffs Department into Portage to eat breakfast and relax until the weather broke. At 6:30 a.m., the weather appeared to lighten and the helicopter crews returned, but before they could get into the air, the cloud cover closed down again. A flight was made about 10 o’clock to determine cloud cover, but it was found that the clouds were less than 50 feet above the top of the stack.
At this point additional ironworkers and engineers from the Generating Plant started gathering equipment to winch the basket out of the stack with a portable hand-cranked winch. While this equipment was being gathered the weather started lightening up. The Roto-Air helicopter flew a reconnaissance flight toward the west and determined that the clouds were breaking up.
Rescue completed
Therefore, the Coast Guard helicopter was prepared and two ironworkers were placed back on the top catwalk. As soon as the ceiling rose to more than 300 feet above the stack, the helicopter picked up the cable and lifted the remaining man clear of the stack. This man was placed on the ground at 11:43 a.m. and was immediately taken to the hospital for observation. The Chinook helicopter then picked up all equipment remaining on the stack and the two ironworkers. The operation was secured at noon.
The entire rescue operation took over 16 1/2 hours. The last man was in the stack for 26 hours. Both men were later released from the hospital with no injuries. The rescue operation involved a total of five helicopters, one Portage pumper, Paske Ambulance, Columbia County and Dane County Sheriffs Departments, Madison Area Technical College personnel, ironworkers who volunteered to help, Colombia Generating Plant personnel, and lighting equipment and two tanker loads of fuel from the Wisconsin Army National Guard.
The pilot of the Coast Guard helicopter, Lt. R. W. Hauschildt, said this was the hardest of his many rescues. Overall, the operation was very successful with close cooperation among all agencies involved and no injuries. The only residual effects were many sleepy people with sore necks.
