Toronto Window Cleaner Saved By His Harness

A Toronto window washer learned the hard way why they call it a lifeline, after he fell about 15 storeys while on the job but miraculously suffered no serious injuries. The man was working Friday at a highrise condominium at 381 Front St. W. when for reasons that are as yet unknown, he fell from the 33rd floor. "He did not hit the ground. His harness was on," Sgt. Jason Shankaran of the Toronto Police Service told CTV Toronto. "He was left dangling." "When I looked out my window, I saw two men suspended in the air. One guy was limp and the other guy was helping the other one hanging limp from the ropes," Suzanne Pinker said.

Several co-workers lowered the man to a ledge just a few storeys above the ground, where he was met by firefighters and paramedics. Firefighters took the dazed man to the ground using a ladder truck. An ambulance took him to hospital for an examination and treatment. However, he is reportedly okay. Shankaran said the man did lose consciousness during the fall, and suffered rope burns to his hands. The provincial labour ministry has been called in to investigate.

Police say a window washer's safety harness saved his life on Friday after he fell 15 storeys while working outside a Front St. condominium as horrified bystanders looked on. The man was rescued by fire fighters and transported to hospital after falling from the 33rd floor of the 381 Front St. highrise around 2:30 p.m. He suffered only minor injuries, according to Toronto police, and will be home for the Easter weekend. The worker’s lifeline saved him from sharing the same fate as the four construction workers who plunged to their deaths on Christmas Eve after the scaffolding that they were working on collapsed. The four men were wearing safety harnesses but the harnesses were not tied off to a solid structure, said Toronto police Det. Kevin Sedore.

This is the third time in two months that a worker has been injuring by falling from a height, but deadly falls are not infrequent. A 43-year-old construction worker died after falling from an apartment building near Victoria Park Ave. and Ellesmere Rd. in mid-February, and another worker died after falling 10 meters on the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus a month later. In January the Ontario government appointed Tony Dean, former head of the Ontario public service, to chair a panel of labour groups and safety experts and recommend changes to Ontario’s worker protection system. This comes after the revelation that more than 400 construction workers have died in Ontario since 1990. The Ministry of Labour is investigating Friday’s incident.

30-year-old Arturo Rodriguez will have to undergo surgery for injuries to his hands that he suffered after grabbing a cable line while falling. He might be off work for months. Rodriguez, who was attached to a cable line, fell from the roof of a condominium on Front Street Friday afternoon and was left dangling 15 floors above ground as co-workers scrambled to lower him to a second-floor ledge. He was taken to St. Michael's Hospital to be treated for serious burns and cuts to his hands. He was later released and brought home to his wife and one-year-old son.

Rodriguez, who came to Canada from Mexico as a refugee, told CTV Toronto through an interpreter that all he could think about while he fell was what went wrong. "I thought my husband died," said Brenda Rodriguez, his wife. "Oh gosh, it was terrible." Ruben Rosa, the head of Premium Window Cleaning, the company that hired Rodriguez, said his employee was saved because he was attached to a safety harness. "He was wearing a safety line, that's the main thing. If something goes wrong, the only thing that's going to save you is that life line," Rosa said.