A bell ringer at Christ Church Cathedral is recovering after a heart attack forced a narrow rope rescue by the Victoria Fire Department on Tuesday.
The man was about five storeys up the bell tower staircase when he collapsed around 5:50 p.m. Paramedics revived the man, but the tight quarters meant firefighters had to get creative extracting him from the spiral staircase.
"Once he started breathing again, it was a bit of a panic to get him out," said Mark Cline, deputy fire chief of operations.
Crews strapped the man to a stretcher board and used advanced rope techniques to get him to the ground floor.
The man was conscious by the time B.C. Ambulance Service transported him to hospital.
