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| A window washer was rescued from a building on Second Street in Harrisburg. The unidentified man was stuck 80 feet up for about 25 minutes. He's now safely on the ground. |
Window washer rescued after dangling from side of building in downtown Harrisburg: A man who slipped in his harness while washing the windows of a building downtown was rescued after dangling over the street for nearly 30 minutes, fire officials said. Newly promoted Harrisburg Deputy Fire Chief Michael Horst said the man was checked by emergency medical personnel at the scene at the Penn National Insurance building on North Second Street. The man was released shortly before 10 a.m., Horst said. Crews used a ladder truck to rescue the man, who was suspended about 70 to 80 feet above the street for roughly 20 minutes after he first slipped, the deputy chief said.
"He was getting ready to change his position on the side of the building and when he did, an automatic safety system kicked in and he was unable to get himself free," Horst said. While the safety harness kept the man from falling, it also put a strain on his legs and waist, meaning crews had to act fast to get him free before medical complications arose, Horst said. "At about 30 minutes his body condition starts to break down from being constrained like that," Horst told reporters.
In spite of Horst's claims that the man was not in any serious danger of falling, onlookers described a frantic scene in the first minutes of the incident. Robert Roth, who was managing the Joe on the Go coffee and snack stand next to the financial building said he first noticed a crowd of people forming a short time before fire crews arrived.
"People were screaming, that's when I came over," Roth said. "He was just sort of hanging there at first, but then he dropped about two stories before he caught himself again ... we all thought he was going to keep falling. It was terrifying." Fire crews had cleared the scene by 10 a.m., and North Second Street was reopened to traffic a short time later.
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| "He dropped about two stories before he caught himself ... we all thought he was going to keep falling. It was terrifying," - Robert Roth, witness. |
Window washer rescued from Harrisburg office building: A window washer was rescued from a Downtown Harrisburg office building this morning. Fire officials said the man was stuck between the fourth and fifth floors of the Penn National Insurance building in the first block of N. 2nd Street. A deputy fire chief on the scene said the man was moving between windows when his safety mechanism became stuck in such a way that it was cutting off blood flow in his leg. The man was stuck for about 25 minutes before firefighters used a ladder to rescue him. The deputy chief said that in another five minutes, the incident could have become fatal due to the loss of blood flow. The window washer was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released
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