JOHANNESBURG - A man was critically injured when he apparently fell through the roof of a structure on a farm at Brandvlei, west of Johannesburg, while another man, in his 80s, managed to escape unscathed when his house caught alight and burnt to the ground in Randburg in Johannesburg in two separate incidents on Saturday morning, paramedics in Gauteng said.
"A man, believed to be 53 years old, is in a critical condition after having fallen through a roof on a farm on the N14, Brandvlei, outside Johannesburg this morning [Saturday]," ER24 spokesman Ross Campbell said in a statement.
ER24 paramedics arrived on the scene at 10.04am to find the man on the ground, having been held still by co-workers. He had suffered critical injuries when he fell from a height of about eight to 10 metres.
"The patient was then treated and stabilised before being handed over to an advanced life support medic in a medical helicopter from another private emergency service for transportation to a private hospital for further care."
The cause of the fall was unknown. The South African Police Service and traffic department officials were on the scene to investigate and to facilitate the medical helicopter landing on the national highway, Campbell said.
May 30 - A man was critically injured when he apparently fell through the roof of a structure on a farm at Brandvlei, west of Johannesburg on Saturday morning. Photo: ER24
In a separate incident a short while later, an 82-year-old man made a lucky escape from a residential fire that completely gutted his house in Gordon Road, Bergbron in Randburg, Johannesburg, Campbell said.
ER24 paramedics were on the scene with the Johannesburg fire department at 10.45am to to find that the man had managed to get out of the house just in time. He was assessed for smoke inhalation and found to be unharmed.
"Our paramedics were still on scene at midday, assessing the fire fighters as they battled the blaze. It is unknown to ER24 as to the cause of the fire," Campbell said.