Man dozes off on 80-feet high bed

CHENNAI: A 40-year-old man created flutter among the residents of the Egmore railway quarters by climbing atop an 80-foot-high water tank on Wednesday night. The Fire and Rescue Service spent nearly four hours to rescue him using a sky lift.Around 10.30 pm, an unidentified man entered the railway quarters and climbed the water tank. Some of the residents who spotted him climbing the water tank immediately alerted the Fire and Rescue Service.While the railway police and the fire and rescue officers feared about the safety of the man, contemplating that he might have climbed to commit suicide, the man did not create any alarm. Instead, he was found to be sleeping quietly on the roof of the tank. The man was wearing two shirts and looked untidy.The officials from Fire and Rescue Service team from Egmore and Kilpauk Fire Service Stations rushed to the spot. The fire fighters who climbed up to the tank, felt it was dangerous to carry out the rescue operation manually. The ladder fitted to the water tank was weak, said the officer.Immediately a team member alerted N Priya Ravichandran, Divisional Officer, Chennai City Central. “As it is dangerous for our men and the person we need to rescue, I put the sky lift into service. On the one hand the ladder is in a bad state; on the other, we can’t predict the behaviour of the man, who is in a docile state,” said Priya Ravichandran.After maneuvering the sky lift inside the railway quarters and cutting a few branches of the trees, the team rescued the man from the water tank. “Even when the fire fighters rescued him, the man was found sleeping and didn’t raise any alarm,” said the officer of Railway police, Egmore.The railway police, who investigated the background of the man, found that he hailed from North India. Locals in Egmore told police that they had found him picking up rubbish around Egmore railway station. The police treated him at the Royapettah Government Hospital and sent him to the Government home.This is the second time the sky lift has been put to use in a rescue operation in Chennai.