Less than ideal weather for anyone outdoors Wednesday, but in particular for firefighters-in-training at NBC 10’s broadcast tower in Rehoboth.
They were preparing for emergencies that can happen at any moment.
North Attleborough Fire Department Chief Chris Coleman said the events are “low frequency, but a high risk,” no pun intended.
Teams of firefighters from Westport to Attleboro, a dozen departments in all, took turns scaling halfway up the nearly 900-foot tower.
It was a simulation of what they might encounter.
When someone working on a tower is in peril, “these injuries can be serious because they're in a harness, and if they get stuck up there and they're suspending, that's something called suspension trauma,” explains Coleman.