Emergency personnel responded Monday afternoon to a worker who they said was hurt and needed to be rescued while taking down scaffolding outside the White House’s North Portico.
Dispatchers for the D.C. Fire and EMS department called for a “high-angle rescue” at the White House, according to publicly available audio recordings. A high-angle rescue is a specialized operation in which emergency workers respond to a person who may be elevated.
Emergency personnel climbed a ladder outside the White House to get to the scaffolding and transported the worker to an ambulance via a stretcher and a basket. The ambulance subsequently went to a hospital, according to emergency personnel.
The D.C. Fire and EMS department said the patient was an adult male construction worker who had a non-life-threatening injury.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the worker’s status.
A worker removing the scaffolding from the North Portico at the White House had to be rescued by DC Fire today. pic.twitter.com/HWidjK5spD
— Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) September 7, 2026
Workers have spent several days removing drapes and scaffolding shrouding the White House’s iconic North Portico, as President Donald Trump prepares to show off his renovation work when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the White House later this month.
Teams of workers had been working under the shrouds for two months to repair the North Portico’s tall, white columns, as well as fortifying the portico’s entrance to the White House.
Administration officials have previously said Trump has personally driven the project.
“President Trump comes out to greet a world leader. He sees door dings in the pillars and says, ‘Look at all this stuff. It needs to be repaired,’” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in July on “The Katie Miller Podcast.”
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