RANLO, N.C. — After a firefighter caught a woman who was falling from a cellphone tower, even the most trained experts told Channel 9 that wasn’t something someone can train for.
It happened around 8 p.m. Sunday in Ranlo. Investigators said the woman was impaired when she climbed a fence topped with razor wire, then started climbing a cellphone tower.
“Thank God he grabbed her.”
— Ken (@kenlemonWSOC9) January 17, 2024
Only on @wsoctv firefighters catch a woman falling from a cell phone tower in Ranlo. I talked to the crew from @GastoniaFire and @RanloFireRescue
about the mid-air grab that saved her life. pic.twitter.com/l6Hzz1aKuk
By the time firefighters got there, she wasn’t wearing any clothes and had bolted up the tower using narrow rungs.
Reporter Ken Lemon talked to the firefighters who made the rescue. They said she climbed for more than an hour and, despite her determination, she lost her grip. That was when Capt. Barron Summey made the catch of a lifetime.
“No warning at all, she just fell backwards,” Summey said.
He somehow grabbed her leg at an estimated 175 feet in the air.
“Nothing more than the grace of God that we were able to make that happen,” he said.
Gastonia’s ladder truck got the call to help the woman, and crews extended the ladder as high as they could. Capt. Summey and firefighter Michael Chafin had to climb about 50 feet or so.
“We talked to her for 20 to 30 minutes,” Chafin said.
She wasn’t coming down and they weren’t going to give up. Ranlo’s Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Hicks watched from the ground knowing the woman could get weak and those firemen were vulnerable.
“Risking everything, ‘cause she could have let go at any time and come down on them,” Hicks said.
Hicks has been in the fire and rescue field for 35 years and has successfully worked rescues at great highs.
“Not to this magnitude,” he said.
Chafin was just below Summey when he made the catch.
“I climbed up as quick as I could and just bearhugged her to the pole,” Chafin said.
“He’s holding a leg and tying knots a 165 foot up.”
They made a point to say everyone working that call had a hand in the rescue. Their work set up the one hand who made the catch.
“Thank God that he grabbed her,” Hicks said.
“I don’t know if that was luck or God or what,” Chafin said.
The firefighters were able to clip themselves to the rungs but could not use harnesses. Capt. Summey said when the woman fell, one of her feet hooked a rung and that made it easier to grab her.
The rescuers said they would love to meet with the woman and see how she is doing.
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