A 62-year-old construction worker needed to be rescued by the fire service after falling into a four-metre-deep pit, spokesman Andreas Kettis said on Friday, recounting the highlights of the fire service’s operations in the past few days.

According to Kettis, the incident took place on Thursday morning on a site located in a public road near Lakatamia industrial area.

The contractor had been doing some work for the water development department when he fell into an open pit with a depth of four metres.

A fire service crew was called to pull the man out, after which he was handed over to an ambulance crew, Kettis said.

The 62-year-old “was placed on an immobilisation stretcher and after being pulled out of the pit using rescue equipment, he was handed over to an ambulance for transport to Nicosia general hospital’s A&E department,” he said.

Following the incident, a labour inspection department employee visited the site.

Kettis added that besides this incident, the fire service received a call at 3.35am on Friday morning about a fire near the road from Pera Pedi to Lofou, and sent a fire engine from the Moniatis rural fire station.

The fire burned a square kilometre of dry grass, wild vegetation, pine trees and two wooden pillars of the EAC.

The causes of the fire are being investigated, Kettis said.

In total, the fire service has responded to 22 incidents, 13 fires, 9 Special Services in the last 24 hours, he added.