Agoracom

VANCOUVER -- A man in a car dangling from the cliffs above Wreck Beach; an injured construction worker trapped in a pit; a man crushed in an elevator shaft.

Trained in the use of ropes, pulleys, harnesses and mobile stretchers to get people out of precarious predicaments, the Vancouver Fire Department's two technical rescue teams handle emergencies in places you wouldn't want to be at the best of times.

The teams owe their origin to a series of near misses and unnecessary fatalities, among would-be rescuers as well as accident victims. The incidents led emergency-services specialists to recognize the need for a group dedicated to dealing with tricky situations, whether at dizzyingly high altitudes or in claustrophobically tight spaces.

A typical day for one of the teams was Friday, when it responded to a close call at a construction site near the corner of Howe and Georgia Streets. A structural support had swung free and clipped a worker, breaking his ankle and a leg.

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