Window Cleaner Falls From Surfers High-Rise

Window cleaners work on the Soul building earlier this year.

Window cleaner falls from Surfers highrise: A window cleaner was left dangling after he tumbled down the side of a Surfers Paradise apartment building this morning. About 8.50am, emergency crews were called to a report a window cleaner was hanging upside down about five floors up the Soul building on The Esplanade.

Witnesses said the rope snapped at the 76th floor and he fell, hitting the glass balustrade on the sixth level. Paramedics reported the man righted himself before rescuers arrived and was met at the sixth level by firefighters.

He suffered serious lacerations to the right side of his body and legs and the skin on his arm was sliced back to nearly the bone, according the witnesses. He was taken to Gold Coast Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Both paramedics and police said the man did not lose consciousness throughout the ordeal.

Window cleaner hangs upside down at Soul building, Surfers Paradise -  A high-rise window cleaner has survived a fall from a skyscraper on the Gold Coast. The man was cleaning the exterior of the giant Soul high-rise on the Surfers Paradise Esplanade about 8.30am when he fell a short distance, coming to rest outside the sixth floor. He was eventually reached by fire and rescue officers and treated for minor cuts and scrapes.

Soul is a 243 m (797 ft) tall residential tower local on the corner of Cavill Avenue and The Esplanade in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It has overtaken Circle on Cavill as the second tallest building on the Gold Coast, behind Q1. The design includes 288 apartments on 77 floors and 5,700 m² of retail space. The development was placed into receivership in October 2012.

Window Cleaning Safety Concerns In Australia

A window cleaner is seen washing windows without a safety harness.

Safety concerns reach new heights: Concerns for highrise safety protocols have been sparked after a horrified passerby snapped a picture of a window cleaner perched high on a ledge without safety gear. The unidentified cleaner was seen many stories up on the Surfers Paradise RSL building at 9 Beach Rd on Tuesday. A cleaning bucket is visible and the cleaner is wearing a sun-protection hat but no other safety equipment can be seen as he reaches up to clean the large windows.

Photographer Byron Bailey said it was an all-to-common sight on the Glitter Strip. "I can't believe just how many times I see this all over the Coast," he said. "I watched (this cleaner) jump from ledge to ledge as he cleaned the windows." The building manager told the Bulletin he was unaware of the alleged incident and could not comment.

Under Queensland's Workplace Health and Safety Act, staff and employers must maintain safe work conditions or face stiff fines. Individuals can cop maximum fines up to $50,000, businesses $300,000 and body corporates can be up for $1.5 million. A WHS Code of Practice published last year regarding fall risks recommended suspended platforms or ropes and harnesses be used for window cleaning. Alternatively, it recommends building designers install windows that pivot to allow for indoor cleaning and prevent outdoor accidents.

A holiday maker "jumped out" the window of a Gold Coast high rise to rescue a window cleaner who fell five storeys to the 17th floor after his ropes failed.

A government spokesman said anyone concerned about their workplace safety practices to view legislation and codes of practice details online. It comes after a 35-year-old window cleaner was left dangling on a rope after he plunged four storeys from the 21st level of a Main Beach hotel yesterday before smashing through an apartment window. Lee Heights was pulled to safety by Brisbane holidaymakers after his safety rope slackened, sending him down the side of the building at high speed. He was taken to hospital with suspected broken ribs after the fall yesterday morning.

Mr. Heights Takes A Drop In Australia

Lee Heights, a window cleaner has fallen from the top of a Gold Coast high-rise, dangling 17 storeys above the ground after his harness gave way.

Queensland cleaner rescued after high-rise fall: A hotel guest has helped rescue a window cleaner left dangling on a rope after falling four storeys at a Gold Coast high-rise. The man had been cleaning windows on the 21st floor of the Sunbird Beach Resort at Main Beach, when a rope went slack. The 35-year-old, who was wearing a safety harness, fell four floors and hit a 17th floor window. A woman staying at the hotel reportedly pulled the dangling man onto a balcony. He has been taken to the Gold Coast Hospital in a stable condition, with suspected rib injuries.

The cleaner, reported to have the ironic name of Lee Heights, was left dangling next to the balcony of the room where the Nicol family, from Brisbane, were holidaying. Mum Jenny Nicol helped pulled the man to safety before she and husband Richard raised the alarm with the building managers. "He was yelling out in pain and groaning and looked a bit dazed," Ms Nicol told The Courier-Mail. "He must have knocked himself out for a bit. I'm just glad he's okay." Police as well as the Department of Workplace Health and Safety are investigating the incident.

Sunbird Beach Resort at Main Beach

Gold Coast high-rise window cleaner who plunged five floors is plucked to safety by tourist on 17th floor: Brisbane holiday makers have rescued a high-rise window cleaner - with the ironic name of Lee Heights - who plunged five floors from a Gold Coast apartment tower. Mr Heights, 35, was tethered to an abseiling rope while cleaning windows on the 21st floor of the Sunbird Beach Resort at Main Beach when he fell about 9.30am on Wednesday. He is believed to have struck his head as he plummetted to the 17th storey, where he was left dazed and dangling.

The Nicol family, of Indooroopilly, were holidaying in the building when they saw Mr Heights fall and pulled him to safety through a bedroom window. "He sort of swung down and hit his head and his elbow smashed into the glass,'' said 14-year-old Jess Nicol, who was in the kitchen of the 17th floor apartment when she saw the fall. "He was just hanging there next to our unit.''

Mum Jenny Nicol helped pull Mr Heights to safety and she and husband Richard alerted the building managers, who rang an ambulance. "He was yelling out in pain and groaning and looked a bit dazed,'' Mrs Nicol said. "He must have knocked himself out for a bit. I'm just glad he's OK.'' Mr Heights, who has been cleaning highrise windows for about 15 years, was taken to Gold Coast Hospital with minor injuries. Police and the Department of Workplace Health and Safety are investigating.

Australian Window Cleaners Buzzed By Giant

Window cleaners Lawrence Jones and Carl Nothling got the fright of their lives yesterday when they turned around to see one of the world's largest planes heading directly for them.

Window cleaners sitting pretty as Globemasters buzz Brisbane: When your job means you dangle hundreds of metres above the ground every day there is little rattles you. But window cleaners Lawrence Jones and Carl Nothling got the fright of their lives yesterday when they turned around to see one of the world's largest planes heading directly for them. Unaware that four of the Air Force's new C-17A Globemasters were due to fly low over the city on a public relations exercise, the duo from Pacific Rope Maneuvers were hard at work cleaning windows at the top of the Brisbane Square building when they noticed hundreds of people lining the nearby Victoria Bridge.

Mr Jones, 27, said he rang his colleague on the roof of the building to find out what was going on when suddenly the four 53m-long and 52m-wide Globemasters came roaring past  and one appeared to heading right for them. "There was one moment I was scared,'' Mr Jones said. The skies over southeast Queensland were home to four giant aircraft when the RAAF's new Globemasters took to the air. "The second or third one that flew over the building looked really close, like it was coming right at us. As it was coming we were just saying `please turn, please turn' and it did just in time.''

Photographer Alex Aspinall was on hand for the Globemaster flyover, but window cleaners Laurence Jones and Carl Nothling had an even better view high above the city.

Twenty-eight floors below the duo, passerby Alex Aspinall had his camera pointed skyward  and captured the exact moment that left Mr Jones and Mr Nothling shaking in their harnesses. Like the window cleaners, Mr Aspinall had also managed to miss the news of the flypast. He was walking to work just in time to see it all unwind. "It was a coincidence really,'' he said. "As I got off the train I saw hordes of people queued up on the bridge. I noticed the window cleaners as I was coming over the bridge and wondered if that's what people were looking at. "It was a pleasing shot in the end. All the other aircraft had come over the river but that one took a much wider pass around ... it looked like it came quite close to the top of that building. "I can imagine it was pretty scary up there.''

C-17A Globemasters are one of the largest planes in the World, standing 322 metres (1056 feet) tall.

But despite the fright, the window cleaner Mr Jones said it had been ``the highlight of my day''. "Being there on the ropes and seeing it so close, it was pretty nice,'' he said. The huge planes took off from Amberley Air Force base west of Brisbane, thundered across the central business district a few minutes later about 300m above the ground before flying over the beaches of the Gold Coast at below the height of the city's loftiest building, the Q1, which stands 322 metres tall.

The formation, which thrilled tens of thousands of onlookers,  included the newest Globemaster, which was delivered on November 6 and is the Royal Australian Air Force's sixth. Wing Commander Paul Long says the Globemasters have made a tremendous contribution since they first arrived in December 2006. "Our C-17As have supported operations in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan and last year were instrumental in providing support for disaster relief tasking in Queensland, Japan and New Zealand,'' he said in a statement.