City Hall Ledge Is Scene of Rescue

A woman perched on a small ledge below the 13th floor of City Hall was rescued Thursday evening when a Los Angeles firefighter leaped onto the precipice and prevented her from jumping.

Firefighter Dan Foote, a driver with Station 14 in Central Los Angeles, made a six-foot leap from a landing on the 13th floor to the ledge where the woman was located. Foote was tethered to a rope.

“I was sitting in the window ready to go -- as soon as she went over, I went after her,” said Foote, an 18-year veteran of the department.

The 18-inch-wide ledge had a foot-high wall on the edge. Beyond the wall was a long fall to the ground or another ledge.

Foote said that he had made similar jumps before, but never from as many floors off the ground.

The woman was not identified. Fire Department officials described her as being in her 40s. It was not known if she was a city employee.

Firefighters received a call about 5:10 p.m. that a woman was on a landing outside the 13th floor, said Battalion Chief Donald R. Austin. She apparently reached the landing by crawling through a window next to the building’s main elevators.

The woman was taken to County-USC Medical Center for evaluation.