Units responded at 1:12 PM for what was initially dispatched as a confined space rescue in the 3400 block of Massachusetts Avenue, NW. 

When firefighters arrived, they learned a construction worker had fallen 10 feet while working in an approximately 25-foot deep pit.  The 33-year-old man was conscious but was complaining of a back injury.  In order to remove the man in the safest possible way – the Special Operations Battalion Chief ordered the patient be stabilized in a stokes basket, which would then be raised to the street level.

Firefighters used a heavy duty crane already on scene to raise the basket to a waiting transport unit.  The man was said to have suffered a minor back injury.  He was transported to the George Washington University Hospital for treatment.