Man injured after slab crashes to ground in Low Spring Road, Long Lee, Keighley (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Man injured after slab crashes to ground in Low Spring Road, Long Lee, Keighley

9:12am Saturday 4th July 2009 in

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Residents were trapped in a block of flats after a balcony collapsed 15ft blocking their only exit.

The incident happened at about 1am today as a man was standing on the stone slab fixed into the wall of the Victorian building in Low Spring Road, Long Lee, Keighley.

The slab crashed to the ground with the man on it – leaving the iron railings still intact on the wall.

Paramedics took the man, believed to be middle-aged, to Airedale Hospital with back injuries.

A fire crew from Keighley who were among the first emergency services to arrive at the scene then called on the specialist urban search and rescue team from Cleckheaton to shore up the collapsed stonework and clear a way out for other residents, who included a heavily pregnant woman, a two-year-old and a 77-year-old.

Watch manager Nick Padwick said: “That’s quite a drop when you’re not expecting it. The man was understandably shocked and complaining of back pains. He could have had serious injuries.

“We were worried that the other residents’ only way out of the flats was blocked.

“They would have had to scramble up and over to get out which, would not have been safe, so that’s why we called in the specialist unit.”