Cell tower climbers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. One moment of lost focus could cost a climber, or one of his team members, their lives.
In this inaugural edition of RCRtv’s “Tower Stories,” Corie Fontenot, a veteran tower climber and safety manager at Tower MRL in Wisconsin, tells a story that happened to his friend that serves as a sobering reminder of what can happen when a tower crew member loses focus.
Fontenot explains that his friend was installing sector mounts at the 380 feet of a 400 foot tower in Rhode Island.
“He was reaching out to grab the mount,” Fontenot says, “out of nowhere the mount sailed to the ground, hit one of the guide wires. Fortunately, it rode the guide wire down instead of sheering it cause if he sheered the guide wire, the tower more than likely would have come down.”
But while the tower did not come down, there was trouble below. The sector, fully dressed out and quite heavy, slammed through the equipment shelter building next to the tower killing two tower techs below.
Fontenot continues with a somber and sobering tone, “Two of the techs, one was an older gentleman, seasoned, training his young apprentice. The young apprentice just had babies; twins, three weeks prior to the incident.”
According to Fontenot, the foreman was having family trouble and was spending a lot of time on the phone causing him to lose focus and let an unqualified worker run the hoist. The hoist got overlapped on the drum and it snapped the rope and then the mount came down on the shelter below.
This is a sobering reminder that the ability to ignore personal distractions is a very important skill tower climbers must have. They rely on each other to stay safe. When someone gets distracted on a job site, the consequences can be deadly.
For more “Tower Stories,” go to RCR Wireless News’s YouTube site or RCRWireless.com.
For more on what it is like to be a tower climber, check out “Gigs: the life of a tower climber.”
If you’re interested in becoming a tower climber, you can find postings at TelecomCareers.net.
Go here to find out more about advancements in tower climber safety .