A particularly dramatic rescue operation required the fire brigade on Saturday evening in Windigsteig in the Lower Austrian district of Waidhofen an der Thaya. In this case, the fire brigade had to rush to the aid of their own colleague. The 32-year-old had been seriously injured in an accident at work on his farm.
A member of the local fire brigade was in the garden when he suddenly heard terrifying screams in the distance. He immediately went to search and found one of his comrades trapped around 300 metres away. The 32-year-old had been trapped between the trailer and the tractor while uncoupling a round baler. The hook of the lower link had penetrated completely through the farmer’s left leg. Floriani helplessly trapped Severely injured, the man was simply trapped. Tormented by pain, he repeatedly called desperately for help. Fortunately, the screams were promptly heard by his neighbouring comrade. When he finally found the farmer at the scene of the accident, he made an emergency call and immediately began first aid. Three fire brigades with a total of 43 men, an emergency doctor, Red Cross paramedics and a rescue helicopter rushed to the scene of the accident.First of all, the round baler was secured against further slipping, then the comrade was freed from his predicament with “the utmost caution and painstaking detail work”, as Stefan Mayer from the Waidhofen an der Thaya district fire brigade command explains. After around an hour, the seriously injured man was flown to hospital by emergency helicopter.Dramatic hours for rescue workers “It was an extremely tragic rescue operation for the emergency services, as it was their own comrade,” confirms Mayer. The police and fire brigade were on duty for around 2.5 hours.
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