A heroic crane operator who lifted a colleague to safety from a tower fire in Reading said his “adrenaline was through the roof” during the rescue.
Glen Edwards has been praised after saving the man’s life when a fire broke out last week at an 18-storey office tower being built by Sir Robert McAlpine as part of the £750m redevelopment of Station Hill of sterling from the city.
In an interview on television Good morning Great BritainMr Edwards, 65, from Egham, Surrey, said he was concreting at the site when one of the benches on the floor raised the alarm and he heard the fire alarm go off.
From his position 20 meters above, he realized that someone was trapped on the eighth floor of the tower.
“As I turned, I could see the man through the left window, he was waving his coat,” he said.
The man had about 2 square meters to stand on as flames surrounded the building and the wind swirled.
After the two bankers on the ground attached the rescue cradle to the crane, Edwards stood up.
“I decided I was going to go down on him instead of going at him because there’s a skill to taking the swing,” he said.
“As he went down, the cradle was rocking back and forth, catching the wind, and he just managed to catch it.”
Asked what was going through his mind, Edwards said: “My adrenaline was through the roof, obviously I tried to stay calm.
“There is a camera on top of the fire and you can zoom in and out, but I couldn’t see it because of the smoke and flames.
“From time to time, I would see him and the smoke would return.
“I tried to put the cage between him and the fire, which I eventually did.”
Paying tribute to the efforts of Banks and firefighters from Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service who tackled the blaze, Edwards said he was very shaken after the man was tackled to the ground.
“I had a job to get up, so to speak,” he said. “I was really shaking. I needed a minute of quiet to pull myself together.”
He said he hadn’t met the man since the rescue, but McAlpine was working to reunite everyone involved.
In a statement after the incident, the company said everyone had been evacuated to safety and thanked those on the scene for their quick thinking.
McAlpine was appointed two years ago as the lead contractor for the second phase of the Station Hill project, which includes a glazed tower providing 26,000 square meters of office space, a new public plaza and a link bridge providing access from the train station in central Reading. .
