NY Rescue.. Sort Of

Two window washers are stuck on a scaffold near the top of a Manhattan high-rise building in New York. The workers became trapped near the 62nd floor of the building at West 54th Street and Broadway. Firefighters later cut a hole in a glass window and safely removed the workers from the scaffold.

Firefighters Rescue Window Washers Trapped Outside 65th Floor of Manhattan High Rise: A pair of window washers were trapped on their rig more than 60 stories up outside a high-rise hotel in midtown Manhattan for more than an hour Tuesday afternoon, fire officials said. The washers were working outside Marriott's Courtyard New York Manhattan/Times Square hotel at Broadway and West 54th Street when they became stuck outside the 65th floor at about 1:30 p.m, officials said.

Firefighters were called to the scene and they were able to secure the workers with a rope. They then pulled them to safety at about 2:30 p.m. Video from the scene showed firefighters creating a hole in the window near the scaffolding. Several other firefighters could be seen on the roof of the skyscraper, and they were able to use ropes to pull the rig toward the window. The two workers were then pulled inside. 

Louis Merced, a scaffoldng mechanic who helped firefighters with the rescue described the demeanor of the window washers after the harrowing ordeal. "They came off the rig laughing, joking," Merced said. "To them it's not that serious either. They were not hurt."

Merced, who works for the company that manages the scaffolding, said that the men weren't in any real danger and that he had the scaffolding working again before firefighters cut out the window. An electrical issue was blamed for causing the scaffolding to get stuck. Several streets around the building were cordoned off as crews worked. 

Two workers were rescued Tuesday afternoon after their scaffold stalled outside a Midtown high-rise building. The workers, became stuck outside the 62nd floor of 1717 Broadway, between West 54th and 55th streets, when the scaffolding stopped working around 1:20 p.m. Firefighters said the scaffold was stabilized with fire department ropes, but since mechanics couldn't get the scaffolding moving again, the FDNY had to cut through a pane of glass in order bring the workers inside.

No injuries were reported, and the entire incident lasted just over an hour. Tom Dembinski, the workers' supervisor at Permasteelisa Group, said the pair was done for the day and on their way back up to the roof when the scaffolding stalled. "A malfunction on the scaffold," he said. "The scaffold shut down, and they were stuck out there...it's the nature of the beast."

The operator of the scaffold, however, criticized the FDNY response and called firefighters' actions unnecessary. "There was no need for the fire department at all," Louis Merced said. "This was overdone." He said the FDNY acted too quickly and that he already had the scaffold active again after a breaker problem caused the stall. "They were not in danger," he said. "It's not like the scaffold was falling. Nothing happened. There was no problem where they were in danger." There is no word on whether the conditions played any role in the malfunction.

Lightning Strike Hits Window Cleaner

A man was struck by lightning Thursday while working atop the Marriott Marquis hotel in downtown Atlanta.

911 system knocked out, hotel window washer struck by lightning as fierce storms strike Cumming, Ga. — Crews are scrambling to make repairs after the 911 system in Forsyth County was knocked out at the height of fierce thunderstorms that struck the metro Atlanta area. Forsyth County Sheriff Ted Paxton tells WSB Radio that Thursday's storms are believed to have knocked out the system. Paxton said the county is using its mobile command center and also getting help from Hall County's 911 center to relay emergency calls. The storm system that rolled through Forsyth County, just north of Atlanta, also sent a lightning bolt crashing onto an Atlanta hotel rooftop, injuring a worker Thursday afternoon. The man was washing windows at the top of the Marriott Marquis hotel in downtown Atlanta when the lightning hit. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. His condition wasn't known.

Lightning strikes man on window-washing scaffold -- Officials with the Atlanta Fire Department said a man was struck by lightning while on a window-washing scaffold on a downtown hotel building Thursday afternoon. It happened at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, at the corner of John Portman Boulevard and Peachtree Center Avenue. Hotel general manager Erica Qualls says the man was working with AAA National Maintenance, a window-washing company. Qualls said the man had been washing windows earlier in the day, but at the time he was struck, he was securing ropes. Qualls said Marriott has a policy that no roof work is to be done when there is lightning in the area, and says she does not know why he was still up there. The man has been transported to Grady Memorial Hospital. The man's condition is unknown, at this time.

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A scaffold lift sits on the ground after a malfunction left a worker hanging on the exterior of the Capitol in Olympia on Thursday.

Worker left dangling after mishap on Legislative Building: Cleaning of the Legislative Building has been suspended indefinitely after a platform similar to that used by window washers gave way, leaving one worker suspended by his life line 40 feet above the ground for about two minutes. Cleaning of the Legislative Building was suspended indefinitely Thursday after a platform similar to that used by window washers gave way, leaving one worker suspended by his life line 40 feet above the ground for about two minutes, according to officials at the state Department of Enterprise Services.

The employee of Seattle-based Western Waterproofing Co., who has not been identified, was pulled to safety on the fourth-floor roof by a co-worker just as Olympia Fire Department personnel arrived on the scene about 7:10 a.m. to assist. Work on the $1.148 million project will not resume until all the scaffolding and equipment are checked, and the dozen or so employees assigned to the job go through additional safety training, Enterprise Services spokesman Jim Erskine said. There were two workers in the rectangular mobile platform preparing to pressure-wash a portion of the Legislative Building. It was not immediately clear how the second worker reached safety.

The project to perform critical exterior repairs and clean the upper two-thirds of the building began in late July and was to be completed in early November. The Capitol Dome is typically scrubbed clean every five years, but the work scheduled for 2009 was placed on hold because of the bleak state budget picture. The current contract also includes tackling leaks in the historic sandstone structure. Enterprise Services maintains the Capitol Campus and its buildings.

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The view Thursday afternoon from the west tower of Marina City. At least four cameras are filming firefighters at center carrying on a stretcher the victim of the mishap at left.

Dearborn Street suits up for role in Chicago Fire: Two actors dressed as Chicago firefighters run past two cars parked in the wrong place at the wrong time. North Dearborn Street just south of Kinzie Street was turned into a film set on Thursday as a scene was filmed for the new television series, Chicago Fire. Traffic on Dearborn was reduced to one lane from early morning to late afternoon, and stopped altogether during actual filming. The two cars on the west side of Dearborn were made up to look like window-washing equipment had fallen from 353 North Clark. According to the Chicago Film Office, Thursday was the one and only day of filming on Dearborn for Chicago Fire. While the show will continue to shoot throughout Chicago through mid-December, there are no plans for them to be back in River North anytime soon. Chicago Fire premiers on NBC on October 10.