Crews Rescue Engineer Hurt in Water Tank

A misstep sent an engineer falling eight feet to the concrete bottom of an empty 4-million-gallon water tank in Thousand Oaks on Friday morning, and it took two companies of Ventura County firefighters to haul him out.

Doug Henderson suffered a broken arm and dislocated elbow in the fall that occurred as he was lowering himself into the huge reservoir tank he had designed for Calleguas Water District.

Calleguas workers had pumped the tank dry in preparation for winter, and Henderson was climbing down into it with two other inspectors to see how it had fared in its first year of operation, said Eric Bergh, a Calleguas spokesman.

Henderson, 46, was wearing a safety harness as he climbed down a 30-foot ladder into the tank, said Bill Yates, an inspector from Kennedy Jenks Consultants of San Francisco.

The ladder ends at a concrete shelf eight feet above the floor of the tank.

When Henderson reached the bottom of the ladder, he unhooked his harness and stepped off the platform, crashing to the floor below.

“He just turned around and forgot there was a small shelf there,” Yates said.

While Yates stayed with Henderson, Calleguas engineer Steve Fiori climbed out and notified co-workers, who called 911, Bergh said.

Firefighters set up an A-frame of aluminum ladders over the hatch, hung a set of pulleys from the peak of the makeshift crane, and lowered a stretcher into the tank.

Once they had tied Henderson to the stretcher and immobilized his neck, firefighters pulled on the rope--with a little help from Calleguas workers--and hauled Henderson out.

He was awake and talking as he emerged, and was taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center. He was in fair condition Friday afternoon, said hospital spokeswoman Kris Carraway.