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Responders worked swiftly and steadily for more than an hour to free the worker, whose legs were pinned beneath the 3,500-pound pile in the 9:20 a.m. mishap at the Knickerbocker Bed Company on Commercial Avenue.
After sedating him, they hooked the worker to a heart monitor out of concern that he might go into shock once the plates were lifted.
A trauma surgeon also was summoned as a precaution.
The worker apparently was beneath a crane when the metal plate slipped loose from a hoist and fell on him, a responder told Daily Voice.
Firefighters, paramedics and police from Carlstadt, East Rutherford, Moonachie and Wallington were among those who responded.
“This was some rescue,” one of them said. “Thirty-five hundred pounds of steel crushed his legs.
“People often take first responders and volunteers for granted,” he added. “You wouldn’t after seeing this.”
The worker was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.
OSHA investigators were at the scene.
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