FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Firefighters rescued a man who fainted while working inside the belly of a cargo ship Sunday afternoon at Port Everglades, according to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue.
The man, who suffered from heat exposure, was 50 feet down in the hold of the Impala, a 350-foot cargo vessel, according to Battalion Chief Michael Kane.
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"While the outside temperatures may creep into the 90’s, the temperature inside a steel container such as the hold of a cargo ship can soar, easily reaching temperatures well over 100 degrees," Kane said in a statement.
Workers were loading concrete when they stopped to report the medical emergency. Port Everglades station personnel moved quickly to treat the man with oxygen and intravenous fluids, Kane said.
The man was too weak to walk, so the agency's technical rescue task force used a ladder truck as a high point to secure the man onto a portable stretcher and lift him out of the ship.
Kane said the rescuers brought him to safety dockside, where paramedics continued to treat him and took him to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
According to Marine Traffic, the Impala operates under the Antigua and Barbuda flag and was going to the Tallinn Old City Port in Estonia.