San Jose Firefighters Rescue Window Washers

San Jose, California: Two window washers who were stuck about 100 feet in the air on a downtown San Jose office building were rescued this morning by members of the Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue Team. The scaffolding the two men were working from on the 9th floor of the One Almaden Blvd. building on West Santa Clara Street apparently malfunctioned. About 8:10 a.m., the two window washers called their employer and said the scaffolding would not move. After evaluating their options, firefighters decided to rappel about 70 feet from the roof and one-by-one pull the men up to safety. Firefighters had also considered using helicopter to rescue the men, but concluded that that tactic was just as dangerous as rappelling down the building. A fire-truck ladder was 30 feet too short to reach the men and the scaffolding was too far away from the windows to break them and pull the men inside the building, according to fire officials.
"These firefighters did a tremendous job," fire Capt. Alberto Olmos said. "Their training really shined today." Firefighter Paulo Brito, wearing a safety harness, scaled down the building and reached the stranded window washers sometime around 9:45 a.m. He attached safety harnesses and ropes to one of the men who was then pulled to the roof. Brito then did the same with the second window washer.
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 2.0 shook the South Bay this morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter of the 4:40 a.m. quake was about eight miles north of Morgan Hill and about 16 miles east-southeast of San Jose City Hall, the USGS reported.

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