FIREFIGHTERS and an air ambulance were called to rescue a man from a top storey flat.
Fire crews arrived to help the man who was in a second floor flat in Dovercourt High Street. He was suffering from back and abdominal pain and could not get out of the flat to be taken for treatment at Colchester General Hospital.
One fire crew from Dovercourt and one from Colchester attended the incident.
Paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service were also called to assist in the rescue.
Incident - Fire crews were called to Dovercourt High Street
Onlookers watched as the emergency services worked.
John Willis, of Hill Road, Dovercourt, was one of the witnesses to the unusual rescue operation.
The retired photographer captured the scene as the ambulance and fire crews worked together to get the man from his home.
He said he heard sirens on the morning of the incident and went outside to see what was happening.
He said: “I talked to a fire officer and they said they needed to use their long crane to get a man out of the window in his top floor flat because they could not get him out of the back exit of the building.
“Then the air ambulance came.
“The firemen managed to take the front window out of the flat to get the man out.”
Rescue - Firefighters pull the man through his flat's window
Mr Willis added: “I didn’t think there was a fire but there was clearly some sort of accident and they struggled to get him out of the window.”
Mr Willis said the fire fighters were eventually able to get the patient, who was on a stretcher, on to the platform of the crane.
He was then lowered carefully to the ground where waiting paramedics treated him for his medical problems.
A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said: “An ambulance crew attended to a man, believed to be in his 40s.
“The Hazardous Area Response Team also attended to help get the patient out of the property.
Stretcher - The man being treated by the ambulance team
“East Anglian Air Ambulance was requested to provide stronger pain relief for the patient.
“He was taken by land ambulance to Colchester General Hospital for further care.”
The man’s condition is not believed to be life-threatening.
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