Intense training by Siloam Springs' Special Operations Team paid off in a big way for a worker on a water tower.
"I was sweating bullets the whole time because I didn't...want our crews or anybody out there to get hurt," Siloam Springs Fire Chief Dustin Kindell recalled as he watched his team conduct a high-angle rescue Monday.
It was the worker's first time changing lights on the 140-foot tower, and he became 'very unconfortable' coming down, the chief told News 5.
"He just wasn't willing to go back down the same way he went up. So they said, 'Well, we have another option. We can go down off the side of the tower and repel down using ropes.' And that's exactly what they did."
Kindell credits the success of the rescue to the massive amount of training his department goes through each year.
"I'm so proud of our folks for the training that they do. They train day in and day out. Rain or shine, they are always out there training."
The team spends a lot of time at the department's five-story training tower practicing the skills they used in the operation.
