Window Cleaner Platform Collapse

Edmonton, Canada: Harnesses save window cleaners after platform collapses at courthouse; Two window cleaners hung in mid-air for a terrifying half hour yesterday after their platform snapped and fell from underneath them at the downtown Law Courts. The accident left the men, whom their boss said are 31 and 57 years old, suspended from a safety rope 15 metres above ground. A harness held them in place underneath the building's overhang while the pair screamed for help, said witness Lisa Russell. Shortly after 1:30 p.m., Russell, 31, was walking towards the courthouse watching the men work on the building's east side when she heard something snap. "It just flew to the right side, and you just heard them screaming, 'Call the fire department,' " said the dayhome operator. It took a ladder truck from the fire department's technical rescue team to get the workers down. Two rescuers climbed up to the pair, where they unhooked them from their safety lines. The men then walked down to safety to the applause of onlookers. In the meantime, four rescuers stayed on the courthouse roof to intervene in case the ladder operation failed, said fire Capt. Roger Estey. But while the workers escaped serious injury, one of them emerged from the ordeal with his shirt bloodied after hitting his head on the falling platform, said their boss, Joe Barbosa of Endure Cleaning. Both men, who went to hospital for evaluation, were shaken. "They were tired. They'd been up there for long enough. They were in a hurry to get down," said Bob Gwartney, one of the ladder rescuers. One of the men, in fact, had been in pain throughout as the harness cut off his circulation. "He said, 'I'm passing out,' " said Barbosa. "At least he didn't fall - that's the main thing." Now, authorities have secured the site outside the courthouse's main entrance so occupational health and safety investigators can begin their probe today. But Barbosa, after examining the equipment, said it appeared to be due to a steel cable holding up the platform that broke. "The cable just ripped out of there. We've just been using that cable for three days," he said, noting he's contacted the company that rented it to him to look into the matter. "I've been in this (business) for 25 years, and it never happened," he added. Barbosa himself was working on the ground nearby when the platform fell. As he turned the corner to walk beneath it, the fall left pails of water and cleaning brushes the workers were using tumbling towards him. In the meantime, worried passersby watched as the men dangled high above the sidewalk. "Thank God they're alive," said Duane, 57, after the rescue. "They had their harnesses on. That's what saved them." And while the incident was certainly most terrifying for the two window washers, Russell said she, too, was scared watching the ordeal. "I felt so sorry for them. It looked like they were just dangling from a thread."

A man is tended to by emergency crews after some scaffolding collapsed out from underneath a pair of window cleaners yesterday at the Edmonton Law Courts building. The workers hung from their safety harnesses for half an hour until rescue crews got them down safely.

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Window washer hurt after 30-foot fall in Miramar, Hollywood: A window washer cleaning a five-story building fell 30 feet this morning, suffering serious injuries, a fire-rescue spokesman said.The plunge took place about 10:30 a.m. at 3450 Lakeside Drive, spokesman Bill Huff said.Paramedics took the 30-year-old worker to Memorial Regional Hospital's trauma center in Hollywood, Huff said. The window washer's identity was not immediately available.