CBC TV rope access

CBC TV, Evening News – LIVE

Friday, June 7,1996

Location: 68 Corporate Dr., Scarborough, Ontario

CBC TV, Evenening News, Late Evening News

TV Anchor: Suhana Meharchand

Reporter: Steve Erwin

Videographers: Bob Armstrong and Ivan Kristoff

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Hanging on ropes about 300 feet off the ground during for Prime Time Evening News.

Suhana Meharchand: Most people would rather go home from the office, but here is a story of a man paid to hang around, and hang, and hang… I think this is where we insert the Spiderman song.”

CBC reporter Stephen Erwin: “Indeed. This is a fellow that makes a real leap of faith every day when he shows up at the office. but he Is not only a dare devil and entrepreneur, lie is a man who uses his skills to help people in some serious danger.”

“Ivan Kristoff is a building inspector of sort… incorporating a few of his skills to help people in some serious danger.”

“Kristoff is a one of a kind trouble shooter. He finds problems in buildings, records them and tells the owner how to fix theme before it is too late or expensive. Going where few but the occasional CBC cameraman dare to go, Kristoff uses high tech digital video cameras, computers, and digital communication systems to do in an hour what would take a team of seven engineers a week.”

“Not bad for a guy who did not speak a word of English a few years ago when he came to Canada… He also speaks another five languages…”

“When he is not hung up in the “office”, Kristoff is coordinating the first Urban High Rise Rescue Team in North America for people who get in trouble. like for example the Oklahoma Bombing or people stuck on high floors where the Fire Department and the Police can’t get them. He says “We know the routes we know the techniques Literally.

 

 

29 December, 1996

Location: 68 Corporate Dr., Scarborough, Ontario

CBC TV, Evenening News, Late Evening News

TV Anchor: Ron Izowa

Reporter: Lorne Matalon

Videographer: Craig Sansom

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Ron Izowa: A former member of the Bulgarian Military is trying to assemble a team of rescuers in Toronto. Rescuers would help people in very specific dangers. Dangers that involve high altitude rescues from buildings or stuck in the elevator shafts. Loran Matalon and photographer Craig Sansom spend a rough day of showing town.

Lorne Matalon: Usually videographer Craig Sansom is on this side of the camera, and I am on that side , but not today. To tell the story of a man who scales tall buildings to rescue people. Craig joined him literally at the hip. Craig was with self-styled Spiderman Ivan Kristoff. A former paratrooper from Bulgaria, he has been working with the Ministry of Labour on guidelines for high-rise rescue. So far the Ministry has approved Kristoff’s plan to drill anchors into the side of high-rises. He says:”…Anchors prevent what is called a ‘swingstage’ – meaning of platform being swept off the building

He once dropped himself from a Don Valley railway bridge to practice what he calls his “art”, but the Police did not see it that way. He was fined $ 50.00. But incidents like that have done a positive result. He is acknowledged expert now in the safe use of ropes for rescue. Next week Kristoff meets with a group of mechanical engineers, all of whom are part of a Labour Ministry task force to finish the standardization of high-rise anchor placements.

In the meantime Kristoff is just hanging out outside of the office…