Wallenda walk needed plans

It’s been almost two years since Nik Wallenda walked on a wire above the Horseshoe Falls. It was the first time anyone had ever walked a highwire so close to the brink. As you can imagine, the inherent danger in the attempt required a rescue plan that has never been seen before at Niagara Falls. And for the first time we’re learning what exactly that plan entailed.

Millions watched Nik Wallenda fight the wind and the mist to cross the Horseshoe Falls on a wire that night on June 15th, 2012.

Chief Lee Smith is with the Niagara Falls Fire Dept: “We had our fingers crossed the whole time. We were on the edge of our seats watching him.”

But there was a lot more to the safety plan than crossing fingers. Police and firefighters had 45 days to get it all together. They didn’t want millions watching around the world to see something go wrong on their watch. They had rescuers on the Maid of the Mist — and the bottom of the gorge.

Wallenda’s first line of defence was his own cart on a cable. But what would happen if he got strung up on that tether.

Chief Smith: “So if was dangling from the cable on his tether, he would have had only a certain amount of time before things started to go bad for his own health. And we would have to get him relatively quickly.”

If Wallenda”s plan failed, Canadian officials had another. A zip rescue device that could deliver rescuers to Wallenda wherever he was on that cable.

Niagara Falls Fire Chief Smith says they implemented a safety plan like no other ever seen for a single event at the falls.

Wallenda was one concern. The more than 100 thousand people who packed the park to watch the event another — the most ever in confined to an area near Table Rock. How do you stop thousands of people from crushing the wall for better view?

Chief Smith: “They would be rushing the wall. And the people might get pushed right over the wall.”

The fence was put up — a fence that worked well in preventing tragedy.

Wallenda and the crowd’s safety was one issue. But were also concerned that up river someone would try to commit suicide or go over the falls in a barrel to steal Wallenda’s thunder.

When Wallenda got to the other side, emergency teams breathed a sigh of relief that he was safe and that the full extent of the safety plan didn’t get out before hand. Just in case it made people think it wasn’t worth watching at all.