Man recorded chilling footage from inside 130-ft gas station sign before sending ‘final words’ to family
A man who was stuck in a sign for six hours recorded spine-tingling footage from inside while trapped 130ft in the air.
Electrician AJ Gow was servicing a towering gas station sign on a hot July 21 in Chicago, USA, when he sent his colleague down to fetch water, but the lift wouldn't go all the way back up, leaving him completely stranded.
"It was a hot day. There was really no air, so I sent my co-worker down. I said, 'go get me some water and my battery-powered fan'. He went down, and on his way back up the lift had an issue and could not make it back," AJ told ABC 7.
As the hours ticked by, Gow seriously feared for his life, and footage from inside the cramped sign, shared on YouTube by Inside Edition, shows just how precarious his situation was.
Advert
Though he gave an optimistic thumbs up to news cameras, his view from 130ft in the air is vertigo-inducing, with nothing but a straight drop down below him.
The panicked emergency services on the ground appeared like stick men from his perspective, while the surrounding fire engines and ambulances looked like children's toys.
It's certainly not somewhere you want to be anytime soon.
How AJ Gow was rescued from sign
Fire truck ladders were only able to reach 100ft, leaving a 30ft gap to save Gow, and efforts to repair their lift were in vain.
After four hours without water and with dread setting in, Gow even recorded a message for his wife and two children in case the worst happened.
"Eventually, I started to feel like crap. And I told him, you know, call EMS. I said, I don't care what you have to do, get me down," AJ said.
"In the moment, it was getting hairy. I mean I was getting - I was genuinely getting scared, and I didn't know what was going to happen. And yeah, I was freaking out.
"God forbid if something were to actually happen - it was my final words. So essentially a goodbye without saying goodbye."
Thankfully, a tall enough lift was found on a building site in the near by city of Joliet and Gow was eventually returned to solid land.
Wilmington Fire Protection District said: “Fire District personnel responded arriving on scene at the intersection of Lorenzo Rd and the Southwest Frontage Rd to find that a contractor conducting work was stranded approximately 130 feet above ground inside an enclosed sign structure toward the top of a sign pole.
“The boom lift was brought to the scene with an Illinois State Police escort where it was then moved from its trailer and into place.
“Division 15 Technical Rescue Team members along with a machine operator ascended to the victim’s location and transferred him from the sign to the lift.
“The victim was returned to safety with no victim or rescuer injuries.”
Gow will go back to his job fixing signs in the sky, but has sworn he won't be getting out of the lift bucket ever again.
Topics: US News
Daniel Murphy