By KOMO TV News & News Services
SEATTLE - A reportedly despondent man who crawled out on the Space Needle observation deck Friday was rescued by negotiators and fire crews.
The man alternately walked and sat on the outer ring of the Needle’s observation deck - 520 feet above the ground - for about three hours while police negotiators sat on the inner ring, talking to him.
He finally agreed to put on a safety harness and the Seattle Fire Department high-angle rescue team helped him crawl back along a support beam to safety, police said.
The man, reportedly from Seattle and about 30 years old, was taken to Harborview Medical Center for evaluation, police Officer Deanna Nollette said.
The first call to the Fire Department came at 1:34 p.m., reporting that a man was threatening to jump from the observation deck, she said. He was rescued at about 4:30 p.m.
The man apparently managed to squeeze through approximately 5-inch gaps in horizontal wire safety fencing that rings the deck, Nollette said.
“He was a very inventive individual who managed to get through,” said Dean Nelson, Space Needle chief executive officer. “I did say that we’d make some modifications to what it is that we’re doing up there.”
The landmark, on the Seattle Center grounds, was built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.