An electrician who was working inside a Penn Medicine campus building under construction in West Philadelphia fell between floors and had to be rescued by firefighters early this afternoon.

KYW’s Mark Abrams reports that according to officials, the contract electrician was working on the fifth floor of Penn Medicine’s “Translational Research Center,” just off Civic Center Boulevard, when he apparently lost his footing and fell about 15 feet between two air handlers.

(Injured worker is wheeled into HUP's emergency room after falling about 15 feet at a construction site.)

Battalion chief Derrick Sawyer says the fire department initially responded with an ambulance, but when they found the man had fallen into a confined area, they summoned rescue personnel to hoist him out:

“Basically, they have mechanical devices that they used to extricate the patient from the fall.”

Sawyer says crews attached a harness onto the man and used a mechanical hoist to pull him up.

He was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for treatment of minor injuries.

(Photo by KYW’s Mark Abrams)