Rescue For Calgary Window Washers

Severe storm blasts through Calgary: A severe storm swept through Calgary and area Tuesday afternoon, bringing hail, torrential downpours and wind gusts reaching more than 100 kilometres per hour that left broken windows and fallen trees in its wake. The worst of the storm has passed Calgary, says CBC meteorologist Danielle Savoni. "At this point it's starting to change over into just the rain and some embedded thunderstorms, but those embedded thunderstorms are nowhere near as severe as what we've seen." Some window washers got caught on a platform on the 22nd floor on an office building on Fifth Avenue S.W. Tara Sukut was in her office a floor below. “You could hear the window washers outside yelling, get us off here, get us out of here,” says Sukut. “And a couple minutes later we just heard glass smashing. And you could see it was banging on the window down on our floor. They broke the windows to get inside the building.” The Calgary Fire Department says it responded to more than 130 calls in the span of 90 minutes Tuesday, and also sent out its high-angle rescue unit to help three window washers. Sukut's interview with the CBC's Elizabeth Snaddon can be heard in the player.

Two downtown window washers rescued as powerful thunderstorms roll through Calgary and area again: As severe weather rolled into the Calgary area for the second time in three days, two window washers were trapped on a swing stage high up on a downtown building Tuesday afternoon. The pair appeared to be washing windows on a building on the 700 block of 5th Avenue S.W. around 3 p.m. when they were stranded about 20 storeys high, said EMS spokesman Ryan Collyer. The strong winds and rain caused the two people to be in distress, and were eventually saved when a window on the building was opened. “We were able to get them down safely through a window,” said fire spokesman Jayson Doyscher. ”In these conditions, it’s unsafe for the high rescue team to operate as well so that worked out very well for us as well.” One of the men was assessed by EMS but he was not transported to hospital, said Collyer.

Window washers rescued as storm rips through Calgary: Trapped 22 storeys above concrete, swinging wildly in wind and rain, a pair of window washers had the scare of a lifetime. One floor below, in the 5 Ave. S.W. highrise between 6 and 7 St., Tara Sukut was watching with co-workers Tuesday afternoon as a hard and fast onslaught of Mother Nature rolled in, when a ruckus started on the platform blowing around outside. “You could hear the guys out there, yelling ... they were banging on the windows,” Sukut said. “It was terrifying. “Our hands were tied and you could hear the terror in the guys’ voices.” Soon after, banging became shattering, followed by falling glass pinging off Sukut’s window as the window washers got inside through broken windows — Sukut believes it was firefighters who ended their ordeal. They were stuck swinging from just after 3 p.m. to about 3:30 p.m., Sukut said.