Australian Man Falls To His Death While Trying To Clean His Own Windows

Tragic fall: the man plunged from the fifth floor of this building after attempting to clean his own windows.

Wife screamed as husband fell to his death from Kirribilli window: Neighbours heard a woman's screams seconds after her husband fell to his death from the sixth-floor window of a harbourside unit at Kirribilli on Monday. The woman ran to a lodge across the road, crying as she begged someone to help revive her husband.

She told staff at Glenferrie Lodge that her husband was cleaning a window in their Carrabella Street unit when he fell and landed in the car park below about 8am. Onlookers tried desperately to revive the 47-year-old man but he went into cardiac arrest at the scene and died. Police said they believed the man had fallen in what was described as an “awful incident” and, at this stage, did not believe self harm was involved.

Sabina Heggie lives in the house next door to the block. “I was woken up by the sounds of screams from next door and when I looked out my bedroom window I could see a woman rushing around and a man lying on the ground near the wall and he wasn't moving,” Ms Heggie said. Several hours later, she placed pink and white lillies on the spot where the man had fallen. “I didn't know him but my heart goes out to his wife. I feel so sorry for her.”

A Glenferrie Lodge cleaner, Anne Yang, said she tried to comfort the woman at the unit block, which is less than 200 metres from Kirribilli House. Ms Yang said she saw the man lying in a white T-shirt and underwear on the ground as others tried to resuscitate him. “After this [the] lady said he cleaned the window, fell off the window,” Ms Yang said. “She just said he fell off the window. She just like shock, really scary, like shaking.”

Vijai Rameshwaram is the manager of Glenferrie Lodge and said the man's wife came running into the reception area, shivering and crying. “A woman came running from the apartment and she was shivering,” Mr Rameshwaram said. He said she asked staff if anyone knew how to do CPR and explained she had already called an ambulance. “She was crying, she was in shock.” The woman was seen leaving the street in an ambulance.

A man has died after falling from the sixth floor of a harbourside apartment at Kirribilli in what police are calling an “awful incident.”

Harbourside Local Area Command crime manager Detective Inspector Mike Birley said: “[It's] an awful incident. “[His] wife was somewhere in the place [and] she's very upset,” Detective Inspector Birley said. Paramedics were called just after 8am and found the man in cardiac arrest but he died at the scene. “We attempted to revive him. He was critical in cardiac arrest but he died at the scene,” an Ambulance Service of NSW said.

The man has yet to be formally identified. A NSW Police media spokesman said initial inquires suggested the death was by “misadventure” but investigations continued. “Police from Harbourside Local Area Command are in attendance [and have] established a crime scene to be examined by forensic officers,” the spokesman said. “Investigations into the man's death are continuing. However, it is not believed to be suspicious,” he said. Officers want to interview anyone who saw the fatal fall. Police have now left the unit block, which overlooks the water and faces the direction of Taronga Zoo at Mosman.