Gow, who works for a company that services signs, said the July incident began as a routine job. He was working inside the sign and accessing it with a lift when a problem developed.
"It was a hot day. There was really no air, so I sent my co-worker down. I said, 'go get me some water and my battery powered fan.' He went down, and on his way back up the lift had an issue and could not make it back," Gow said.
At first, Gow said he was not overly concerned. But as the situation stretched on, his condition worsened. By about 2 p.m., he had spent four hours inside the sign without water while efforts to repair the lift were unsuccessful.
"Eventually I started to feel like crap. And I told him, you know, call EMS. I said, I don't care what you have to do, get me down," Gow said.
As the hours passed, Gow said he became increasingly worried about his situation.
"In the moment, it was getting hairy. I mean I was getting - I was genuinely getting scared, and I didn't know what was going to happen. And yeah, I was freaking out," he said.
Gow said the uncertainty led him to record messages for his wife and children in case he did not survive.
"God forbid if something were to actually happen - it was my final words. So essentially a goodbye without saying goodbye," he said.
The Wilmington Fire Protection District responded to the scene, and about an hour later, a different lift borrowed from a nearby job site arrived. Video recorded by Gow showed the equipment used in the rescue. Around the same time, aerial footage captured him giving a thumbs-up signal as help arrived, an image that later spread widely online.
"I was not prepared for it to get as much traction as it did," Gow said. "I had no idea that I was going to be stuck up here for that long, or was going to be anywhere near that kind of scenario."
Gow was rescued after spending more than six hours inside the sign.
Now, with some distance from the experience, he said he is grateful for the outcome.
"I'm so fortunate that it turned out the way that it did and I'm able to look back in hindsight and laugh at it," Gow said.
Gow said he has already returned to work servicing signs high above the ground. He added that he has made one change following the incident: he plans to remain in the safety of the bucket while working so that if a lift fails again, he will not become stranded.