Window Cleaner Montreal Fatality

Man dies after falling 20 storeys in Montreal: Two blue suspension ropes swayed ominously in the breeze after a window washer plunged to his death from the top of a skyscraper in downtown Montreal Tuesday. Police confirmed that a man in his 40s was tethered to the 20-foot aluminum platform when it suddenly broke loose, falling from the 20th floor of the Blue Cross building at President Kennedy Ave. and Aylmer St. and landing on the roof of the Maison du Jazz restaurant. The victim and two other washers who survived the accident were reportedly working for Mon laveur de vitre, Inc.
John Henry (pictured) was serving in the restaurant formerly known as Biddles when the scaffold fell at around 1:15 p.m., and was the first to arrive on the scene. “We heard a big boom on the roof,” he said. “I have taken a first responders course, so I climbed up on the roof to see what happened.”
Henry found the victim next to the platform, his legs crushed under a steel beam that had been fallen along with the scaffold. Henry checked the man’s pulse; he was dead. Two men on top of the Blue Cross building could be heard calling for help, so Henry went up to see them. “They were suffering from nervous shock,” Henry said. “They were shaking and grabbing their heads.” The two workers were later taken to hospital and treated for shock.
Another witness, Mark Crispino, spoke to the washers the day before the accident. “Just yesterday I asked them for a business card because I need window washing at home,” he said. “I asked if accidents ever happened. He said nothing serious ever happens, because we have belts. So we always wear our safety belts, because otherwise we’re not insured.” Frederick Amoako, a maintenance man in the Blue Cross building, was standing in the adjacent parking lot when the accident happened. “I heard the noise – bap! – and he’s dead,” he said, adding that he ran in fear when he heard the noise. “One of those guys just asked me for a smoke this morning.”
It's not yet clear exactly why the scaffold fell. The CSST is investigating and will have more details Wednesday, spokesperson Alexandra Reny said. Four Montreal window washers have died on the job since 2000.

Four cleaners had finished washing a row of windows on the 20-storey office tower, just before the incident occurred, around 1:30 pm. They left their platform and removed their safety harnesses when the support system holding up the platform gave way, firefighters said. A cleaner trying to move the platform became entangled and fell with the device, 18 storeys to the mezzanine below.