IL Firefighters Use Spreader to Rescue Man in Tree

Illinois firefighters used a battery-operated spreader to rescue a man who was trapped in a tree overnight.

The Belleville Fire Department responded to a call early Wednesday about a 31-year-old man who was hanging 4 feet off the ground along a park trail, the department said in an online statement. The man told firefighters that his knee became stuck in the fork of the tree after he was chased up the tree by a dog and had been stuck since 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Because the man had no circulation from the knee down, firefighters waited to free the man until he could be immediately airlifted to a hospital and surgery could be performed in order to save as much of the leg as possible. Crews eventually used a spreader a tool commonly employed in car crashes to spread the tree fork 4 inches, allowing them to free the man's knee.

The man was then flown to a St. Louis hospital, and officials told KMOV-TV that the man could lose his leg or foot.