Tricky Rescue Frees Roofer Who Nailed Hand To Roof

COCONUT GROVE (CBS4) - A man who nailed his hand of the roof of a Coconut Grove home required the help of Miami Fire Rescue Thursday afternoon, and they were forced to conduct a tricky rescue that involved cutting part of the roof away.

Rescue crews responded to the home at 2949 Day Avenue and found the man, who had been working on the roof, unable to free his hand from the roof.

Fire Rescue Lt. Iggy Carroll said the man was using a nail gun and accidentally nailed his finger to a piece of wood.

"It was that one finger on his left hand where the nail went through and into the wood. And we wasn't able to free himself, so that's when they called 911," Lt Carroll said.

After determining that they could not safely free the man, crews used a  hand-held power saw to remove the section of roof attached to his hand.

"We actually had to cut the roof around his hands so we could safely move him down," said Lt. Carroll.  "Anytime you have someone impaled you don't want to pull it out. We cut around it."

Lt. Carroll said it took about 90 minutes to safely get the man down, mostly because paramedics called to the houise decided they needed a little extra help to safely get the 47-year-old man down.

"Because of the pitch of the roof and the drop was about 30 feet, our units called for additional resources, so we brought a special team, our Technical Rescue Team, to come out here and provide a little more safety equipments for our paramedics to remove this gentleman."

He was transported to the hospital for treatment, with the piece of roof decking still attached, in good shape.