Fountain Hills Fire Department called on the assistance of trained specialists to assist with the rescue of a worker at the Fountain Hills Sanitary District treatment plant on Friday morning, May 1.

Firefighters were called shortly before 9 a.m. when the man fell about eight feet into a concrete clarifier basin at the Sanitary District treatment plant on Pepperwood Circle near Saguaro Boulevard. According to FH Fire Department Asst. Chief Mike Winters the man was working on a scaffold doing maintenance when he stepped off and fell. The injured man was a contractor working at the site and not a district employee.

Winters said he was complaining of back injuries and was about 20 feet below grade. That situation required the assistance of technical rescue teams with personnel provided by Scottsdale, Salt River and Phoenix fire departments.

The man, who received what were reported as minor injuries, was placed in a basket and lifted out of the basin with a ladder truck. He was transported to a hospital by ambulance.