WORKER RESCUED FROM SCALDING TAR
• A 46- year- old Toronto worker is in critical condition in hospital after he was hit by scalding liquefied tar in an industrial accident.
It took firefighters almost an hour of frantic chipping and cutting of the hardening tar to free the victim.
Horrified onlookers called 911 at 7: 37 a. m. to Danforth and Logan avenues after the driver of a five- ton truck — part of a two- vehicle road repair crew — braked hard to avoid running over a piece of equipment that fell from the front of the truck, emergency officials said.
“When the vehicle came to an abrupt stop, the tar washed up and out of its container and into the work area of the truck,” said Const. Clint Stibbe of the Toronto Police Service.
There were three workers in the rear of the truck, but one took the force of the 200 C tar.
Firefighters in heat- protective suits cut away a side panel of the truck with a reciprocating saw to get to the fallen worker, while paramedics gave him a pain- reducing injection.
“The molten t ar had spilled out of the container and completely encased one of the workers in the back,” said Platoon Chief Dave Denysek with Toronto Fire Services ( TFS) who responded.
“He was in great pain, obviously. He suffered significant burning from the tar but at the same time he was trapped. He was trapped in a pool of molten tar. The tar is extremely hot when it’s in the pot, but as soon as it hits the air it starts to harden.”
“This was quite an unusual extrication for us and quite i nvolved,” Denysek added. “We had guys outside the truck, inside the truck, on top of the truck.”
There were 18 firefighters and two paramedics helping the victim.
Capt. David Eckerman of TFS said the rescue was a slow process.
“We were attempting to chip and cut away this tar that had cooled and solidified. As we were chipping and cutting away the tar, gravity pulled him back into the soft tar that was still underneath the outer coating.
“Picture l ava t hat becomes hard on the outside that forms a shell and the inner is still soft. … So every time we got a little bit of the tar removed from beneath him, his weight carried him deeper into the fresh soft tar and we had to repeat the process.”
Firefighters put suspension straps — usually used for securing unstable vehicles at car crashes — underneath the worker to keep him still as they continued to chip away, using grinders, reciprocating saws and box cutters.
As they cut through the hard outer layer and into the pool entrapping him, the tar became “like toffee.”
“It was more than 40 minutes of clawing and scratching, bit by bit,” Denysek said.
He added the worker appeared to have been saved from some burning by wearing a rugged pair of jeans over thermal underwear, what appeared to be cotton long johns. The man, who has not been identified, is being treated in the burn unit at Sunnybrook Hospital.