The owner of a company that was removing the cap from a water tower in Brooklyn has been injured after falling 30 feet into the tank.

Columbia Township Fire Chief Shawn Lutz tells MLive.com that gear designed to keep Matt Schaedler from falling failed Monday morning.

It took about three hours before firefighters were able to pull Schaedler from the tank. He was placed in a basket and lowered to the ground by a crane.

Lutz said Schaedler was in stable condition at an Ann Arbor hospital.

Toledo, Ohio-based Schaedler Enterprises bought the tower and is dismantling it to sell the metal. Brooklyn village manager Jennifer Coe earlier said the tower had not been used for several years.

Brooklyn is about 60 miles southwest of Detroit in Jackson County.