Worker rescued from new Borgata tower

A construction worker was rescued from the 16th floor of a new hotel addition at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa this morning, an Atlantic City Fire Department official said. The worker slipped and fell into a small void while working on the new building's glass exterior.

Shortly before 11 a.m., the fire department was called to the Borgata Water Club, a new 43-story hotel expansion of the Borgata that is under construction.

The department dispatched its high-angle rescue team to the scene and found that a glazier, a person who sets glass, had become trapped between two walls on the 16th floor, said Battalion Chief Michael Mooney.

Borgata spokesman Michael Facenda said the worker slipped into a two-foot void, and had to be rescued. That space will eventually be filled in before the building opens, but had to be left open to allow glass workers to access the outer portion of the building and install the windows.

The worker, who was not identified, was fully secured in his harness but somehow fell and became pinned between the wall and the glass or curtain wall of the new construction, said Mooney.

He was taken to a local hospital where he was treated for a shoulder injury.

The rescue took 45 minutes, said Mooney.

It was a "very smooth and very coordinated operation," he said.

The mishap was the second at the Water Club, which was damaged by a Sept. 23 fire that pushed its opening date back by several months.

The $400 million, 43-story hotel and spa tower is being built next to the existing casino-hotel, and had been due to open in February. The new projected opening date is sometime around Memorial Day weekend.