An Illinois electrician went up to service a highway sign in July and discovered that getting inside was considerably easier than getting back out.
A.J. Gow was working inside an enclosed sign structure about 130 feet above the ground in Wilmington when the telescopic boom lift being used for the job malfunctioned.
By the time the Wilmington Fire Protection District was called, Gow had been stranded for hours. The sign pole had no built-in ladders or stairs, eliminating the usual way a technical rescue team might climb to someone in his position.
There was another problem waiting for firefighters on the ground: Gow was about 130 feet up, while the department’s ladder trucks couldn’t reach that high.
Thirty Feet Short
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The fire district was dispatched at 1:55 p.m. July 21 to the area of Lorenzo Road and Southwest Frontage Road, near Interstate 55.
Firefighters found Gow inside the enclosed portion of the sign near the top of the pole. The district said crews were told he’d been stranded at the elevated position for around three hours after the boom lift malfunctioned.
The Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Division 15 Technical Rescue Team was called in, but the structure itself offered no easy route to Gow. There were no ladders or stairs inside the sign pole, and the height put him beyond the reach of the fire department’s ladder trucks.
Crews launched a drone to maintain visual contact with him while they worked on another plan.
The malfunctioning lift was lowered and removed from the base of the tower. Firefighters eventually located a replacement boom lift in the Joliet area that could reach Gow.
Illinois State Police escorted it to the scene.
Once the replacement equipment was in position, technical rescue team members and a machine operator went up, reached Gow, and brought him safely back to the ground.
The fire district reported no injuries.
Waiting Inside
A month later, Gow explained what those hours had been like from the other end of the rescue.
He told WLS that the job had begun routinely. He and a coworker were servicing electric signs using the lift.
It was hot inside the sign with little airflow, Gow said, so he sent his coworker down to get water and a battery-powered fan.
The coworker couldn’t make it back up because the lift developed a problem.
At first, Gow wasn’t particularly worried. The crew below tried to get the lift working again while he waited inside.
The wait kept getting longer.
By about 2 p.m., Gow said he’d been inside for four hours without water. When he began feeling ill, he told his coworker to call EMS.
“I don’t care what you have to do, get me down,” Gow recalled telling him.
Just In Case
With no quick way out and no certainty about how the situation would end, Gow started recording videos for his wife and children.
He described them as messages intended for his family if something happened to him.
“So, essentially, a goodbye without saying goodbye,” he said.
Gow said he was genuinely scared and didn’t know what was going to happen.
His outlook improved considerably when the replacement lift finally arrived.
Video from the rescue showed Gow giving a thumbs-up from high above the ground as crews worked to get him down.
He later said he hadn’t expected the incident, or images from the rescue, to receive so much attention.
Back Up There
The experience hasn’t persuaded Gow to find work closer to ground level.
He told WLS that he’s already returned to servicing signs high above the ground.
He did make one change.
Gow said he now plans to remain in the lift bucket while doing the work.
That way, if the lift stops working again, he intends to be stranded with the part designed to bring him back down.