Worker seriously injured in fall at Shaft 10

Firefighters and EMTs take a seriously injured workman from the Carmel Volunteer Ambulance to a waiting STAT-Flight helicopter that landed Monday afternoon on Route 6 in Mahopac. ERIC GROSS A construction worker suffered serious injury Monday when he fell some 20 feet inside Shaft 10 on New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) property in Carmel. The shaft is contained in a large brick building along Route 6 overlooking a reservoir that separates Mahopac and Carmel.

Around 3pm the Putnam 911 Dispatch Center received a call reporting a man injured in a fall inside the brick building.

Carmel Fire Department personnel under the command of Captain Dave DiRienzo responded along with the Carmel Volunteer Ambulance Corps and a paramedic from the TransCare Ambulance Company.

Capt. DiRienzo said the man was located five stories down the “contained shaft. The victim was working inside when for an unknown reason he lost his footing and fell.”

Paramedics and EMTs along with officials of the Skapska Construction Company of Valley Stream, Long Island— the firm believed to be the victim’s employer—requested immediate medical attention and a MedEvac helicopter.

Fire crews assisted by medical personnel, Carmel Police, and New York City DEP Police extricated the man during a laborious process. The victim, who was not identified, was taken on a stretcher to the Carmel ambulance and given a police escort courtesy of Officer Michael Sheil to the waiting STAT-Flight chopper that landed on Route 6 at Crane Road in Mahopac.

The victim was transferred to the chopper and was taken to the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla.

Carmel Police completely closed Route 6 from Baldwin Lane in Mahopac to Drewville Road in Carmel until the rescue operation was completed, resulting in a massive traffic jam for scores of unsuspecting motorists.

Members of the Mahopac Fire Department also lent assistance as did a representative of the Putnam Bureau of Emergency Services.

—Eric Gross