Boston Window washers rescued from 37th floor

Window washers rescued from 37th floor of Boston skyscraper: Glancing out the window of her 40th floor office, it took a moment for Gemma Hyde to realize something was wrong. Window washers are always strapped to the buildings that surround her One Post Office Place, and the scaffolding she could see strapped to 53 State St. seemed no different. “Then I realized one side was dangling,” said Hyde, an associate at Clough Capital Partners LP. “I called to a coworker and said ‘Oh my God, what should we do?’” The employees that gathered frantically at the windows saw a platform hanging, lopsided, with two men hanging on motionless. They were about to call 911 when they saw fire trucks pull up and emergency workers rush into the building, she said.



They watched, horrified, as one man clung to the ropes of the the tilted platform, the other appearing to grip the rails between the plate glass windows. “They weren’t moving at all, they were completely still for 20 minutes,” said Hyde, who watched the scene unfold with a pair of binoculars kept in the office. “We could see they were harnessed in, but it looked like they were both clinging on,” she said.
When firefighters reached the 37th floor, where the men had been stranded after the platform somehow shifted, they shattered a window at each end of the platform, pulling the workers in one at a time. “You could see them smash the glass and shards of glass just falling,” she said. “Then they pulled one man in and you could see his little boots going through the window.” Shaking, Hyde snapped several pictures before both men were pulled to safety. “We kept looking away but we couldn’t stop watching,” she said. “Then we all breathed a sigh of relief.” Steve MacDonald, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department, said firefighters rescued the workers shortly before 10 a.m. by breaking a couple of windows in the 40-story building.
Authorities kept pedestrians away from the area to protect them from any falling glass. One the workers was transported to a hospital for evaluation. The other refused medical care. MacDonald said neither was seriously injured. Hyde said employees of the financial firm, which is about a block away from the building the washers were on, have never even seen a helicopter land on one of the landing pads around the building. “For three years, I’ve never seen anything,” she said. “But it's been an exciting morning.”

Two window washers spent 20 minutes clinging to a dangling platform 37 stories above State Street this morning before firefighters smashed windows and pulled the men to safety, according to fire officials and witnesses. Glass rained down on the street below. The rigging hanging off the glass high rise failed at about 9:15 a.m. and caused one end of the metal walkway to drop some 20 feet, leaving the platform slanted at a precarious 45 degree angle. Held aloft by their safety harnesses, the window washers gripped the scaffolding, "banging on the window" at office workers inside, according to David Suprenant, a contractor working on the 38th floor. "They were yelling for someone to call 911," said Suprenant, recounting what he was told by an office worker a floor below.
Four Boston firefighters rushed up to the 37th floor in an elevator and used blunt metal tools to break two windows. Glass rained down on the street below as firefighters yelled for passersby to take cover. People scattered on the narrow streets to avoid the debris. On the 37th floor the firefighters fed ropes out the broken windows to secure the two window washers. It took five minutes to pull the first man to safety inside the building, and seven minutes to save the second. To watch a reader submitted video of the rescue, click here. It "seemed like a week," said Lieutenant John Soares, one of the firefighters on the 37th floor. "They were shaken and rightfully so. They were thankful and grateful. They just wanted to get off the scaffolding as soon as they could."
One of the men was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. The other man did not suffer serious injuries. The men work for Harvard Maintenance Inc., a national company that services office buildings. The rescue created a dramatic scene in the Financial District as firefighters cordoned off the building at 53 State St.
"Everybody in our office ran to the windows to look," said Brett Jackson, who was working on the ninth floor of the building across the street and snapped a photograph with his cellphone. "We could hear glass hitting the side of the building," said Mark Carey, 22, who was working four floors below 53 State St. at a communications firm. Jose Diaz, 21, watched from the nearby Courier building. “I saw the two guys hanging out there, I’m glad they were rescued,” Diaz said. “I wouldn’t be up there if it were me.”
The two window washers had been working on the Exchange Place side of the building when their rigging somehow failed, according to Melissa Coley, spokeswoman for building owner Brookfield Properties Inc. "We are glad everybody is OK,'' Coley said. Boston Deputy Fire Chief Robert Calobrisi said the workers were in “great danger of falling out.” “It’s a perilous task," Calobrisi said, "especially when you are up that high, but technical rescues are part of ongoing training."
Two workplace safety inspectors from the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration responded to the scene to investigate, said spokesman Ted Fitzgerald. According to the safety administration's listing of workplace safety investigations, Harvard Maintenance has only been the subject of two inquiries since 2004, one in Manhattan and one in Minnesota. Details were not immediately available.

BOSTON — Two window washers clinging to a dangling platform 37 stories up on a downtown Boston building were rescued by firefighters Wednesday. Firefighters broke a couple of windows on the 40-story building to get to the workers, who were stranded on the platform for about 20 minutes. Their hanging scaffolding malfunctioned and one side of the basket dropped, Boston Fire Department Deputy Chief Robert Calobrisi said. Authorities secured the area in Boston's financial district from pedestrians while glass fell from the building near the end of the busy morning commute. "It's always a dangerous rescue when you're up that high," Calobrisi said. The platform somehow shifted downward on one side while the workers, whose names have not been released, were cleaning windows on the 37th floor, Calobrisi said. They were trapped on the platform until firefighters arrived. "He was shaken up and rightfully so," Lt. John Soares said of one of the window washers. "It's 37 floors. It's a beautiful view from there, but I don't know if I wanted to do it like that." David Surprenant, a private contractor who works on the 38th floor, said the workers could be heard banging on the window and screaming for someone to call 911.
"They were panicking," Surprenant said. Meanwhile, a crowd of curious businessmen and passers-by gathered below, craning to get a better view of the morning's commotion. One onlooker, 38-year-old Ronnie Lees, snapped a photo of the crooked scaffolding on his cell phone as his children stared at the glass building. "Where's Spiderman when you need him?" Lees asked. One of the workers was transported to a hospital for minor injuries, and the other refused medical care, officials said. Neither was seriously hurt. Melissa Coley, spokeswoman for building owner, Brookfield Properties, Inc., said the men worked for Harvard Maintenance Inc., a national company that services office buildings. Investigators were still trying to determine if a cable snapped, she said. A spokeswoman for Harvard Maintenance Inc. did not immediately return phone calls. Fire officials were waiting for a scaffolding engineer to stabilize the platform.