By Reed Williams
The Richmond Times Dispatch
RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond firefighters rescued a woman from the edge of a bridge yesterday, quickening their effort after she told them her legs were weakening.
Police were summoned about 12:25 p.m. after a passer-by saw the woman on the side of the Curtis Holt Sr. Bridge along North Fifth Street just north of Hospital Street.
Police notified firefighters who arrived to find the woman clinging to the outside of a fence on the eastern side of the bridge, which overlooks railroad tracks more than 100 feet below, fire officials said.
Officials did not name the woman, who has no fixed address, or speculate as to why she was there.
She told firefighters when they arrived that she could make it
Moran back to the end of the bridge, “and we told her we’d rather help her out,” said Marshall Moran, the city firefighter who ultimately rescued the woman.
Firefighters held her to the side of the bridge with a flat, nylon rope, Moran said, but she told them her legs were weakening and she was tired of standing.
“That put a little more hurry to us,” said Moran. Despite the nylon rope, he said, there is “always the chance of her falling, and if she loses her legs, it’s a greater chance.”
Moran, who has been with the fire department more than nine years, was lowered to the woman by rope from a raised platform.
“I was just talking to her about the snow, about the weather, what her name was,” Moran said. “She was very calm and was willing to do whatever I asked of her.”
Moran said he secured her with a harness, and they both were hoisted over the fence and safely back onto the bridge, which had been closed to traffic.
The woman was taken to Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital.
“Everything worked according to plan,” said fire Lt. Shawn L. Jones. “Unfortunately, this is something we do. We’ve doggone near perfected it.”
Moran, 36, of King William County is a member of Rescue 2, a technical rescue company based at Station 10 on Hermitage Road.
Rescue 2 responds to situations such as rope rescues, building collapses, trench rescues and vehicle extrications. The company responded to about 275 incidents last year, Jones said.
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