Firefighters and a special rescue team came to the aid of a man who fell inside a Bradenton water tower while performing maintenance work on Wednesday.
City of Bradenton Fire Department Chief Tim Geer told the Bradenton Herald that the worker fell while sandblasting the water tower and suffered a possible ankle fracture.
A technical rescue team was called to the site and performed a “high-angle rescue,” lowering the worker through the center of the tank to emergency responders, according to Geer.
Geer said the man was OK after the incident.
A worker performing maintenance on the City of Bradenton water tower near G.T. Bray Park suffered a lower leg injury and had to be rescued by members of the Bradenton Fire Department and other technical rescue groups from the area. They had to perform a high-angle rescue, according to Fire Chief Tim Geer, at around 9:30 a.m. on May 27, 2026. Tiffany Tompkins ttompkins@bradenton.com
The rescue team included members from several Manatee County fire districts.
The entire rescue took about an hour, “which is pretty good for our team members,” Geer said.
“That shows the level of training that we have here in the city of Bradenton and Manatee County,” Geer said. “Very thankful for that, and thankful for the good outcome of the patient.”
A worker performing maintenance on the City of Bradenton water tower near G.T. Bray Park suffered a lower leg injury and had to be rescued by members of the Bradenton Fire Department and other technical rescue groups from the area. They had to perform a high-angle rescue, according to Fire Chief Tim Geer, at around 9:30 a.m. on May 27, 2026. Tiffany Tompkins ttompkins@bradenton.com
A worker performing maintenance on the City of Bradenton water tower near G.T. Bray Park suffered a lower leg injury and had to be rescued by members of the Bradenton Fire Department and other technical rescue groups from the area. They had to perform a high-angle rescue, according to Fire Chief Tim Geer, at around 9:30 a.m. on May 27, 2026. Tiffany Tompkins ttompkins@bradenton.com
A worker performing maintenance on the City of Bradenton water tower near G.T. Bray Park suffered a lower leg injury and had to be rescued by members of the Bradenton Fire Department and other technical rescue groups from the area. They had to perform a high-angle rescue, according to Fire Chief Tim Geer, at around 9:30 a.m. on May 27, 2026. Tiffany Tompkins ttompkins@bradenton.com
A worker performing maintenance on the City of Bradenton water tower near G.T. Bray Park suffered a lower leg injury and had to be rescued by members of the Bradenton Fire Department and other technical rescue groups from the area. They had to perform a high-angle rescue, according to Fire Chief Tim Geer, at around 9:30 a.m. on May 27, 2026. Tiffany Tompkins ttompkins@bradenton.com
Amaia Gavica is the Miami Herald’s “Surviving Miami” reporter, keeping an eye on the topics that make it challenging to live here, including traffic, affordability and those daily irritations we all go through. She has reported in several states and earned her degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University.
