Elevated Platform Rescue Merseyside

Five fire engines were called to the scene on Old Hall Street where two men were stranded on a raised platform at around midday today.

Two window cleaners rescued by fire service after becoming stuck outside top-floor window: Two window cleaners were rescued after they got stuck outside the top floor of a city centre office block.

Five fire engines were called to the scene on Old Hall Street where two men were stranded on a raised platform at around midday today. The men, employed by Birkenhead cleaning company Clearground, were cleaning the top floor windows of a building that includes law firm Hill Dickinson.

But one cleaner said the control for the platform stopped working - leaving two of the three staff stranded high in the air for around an hour. Search and rescue officers from the Merseyside fire service raised their own platform to be side-by-side with the men. The cleaners’ platform was then strapped temporarily to the building to keep them secure.

Cleaner Will Taylor said they became worried as the wind picked up.

A man in the top floor office only a few metres away and other passers-by looked on as the men were brought down safely by 1pm. Will Taylor, 58, said: “We got stuck up there and were up there for about an hour. The control had stopped working, both for us at the top or my mate at the bottom. “You worry, of course you worry - it was windy. My mate was shaking. We called our boss. You want to get the job done.”

He said they had already cleaned all the lower floors of the building, so would finish work for the day. He praised the fire service for their efforts adding: “They are brilliant, all of them. You would be lost without them.”