The Last Sad Picture Of An Amateur Window Cleaner

An Indonesian maid who tried to prevent the fall of another maid said 'She was... too low already. She didn't say anything. She just looked panicked and scared.'

Maid clung onto hands of duo before death plunge: For five long minutes last Thursday, a terrified Indonesian maid clung onto the hands of two strangers as she dangled from an eighth-floor window at a Jurong condominium apartment. But the 26-year-old, believed to have been cleaning the windows of her employer's home minutes before, slipped from the grasp of those two pairs of hands and fell to her death. One of the two people who tried to prevent her fall was a fellow Indonesian maid from a seventh-floor unit at the Ivory Heights condo. Declining to be named, she told The Straits Times on Monday that the desperate woman's eyes, wide with fear, have been seared into her memory.

Indonesian hung on for 5 mins, but neighbour and another maid could not pull her in.

Maid falls to her death from 8th-floor window (Singapore): The maid is said to have fallen from this block (pictured) at Ivory Heights condominium. She was taken to hospital, but was later pronounced dead. A mid-afternoon drama ended at a Jurong East condominium when a maid fell to her death after a desperate bid to save her failed. The 26-year-old Indonesian was believed to be cleaning the windows of her employer's home at Ivory Heights condominium when she fell, neighbours said. 'I heard the screams, looked up and saw her at the window,' said a Filipino maid who declined to be named. 'There were two people trying to pull her in but she still fell,' she said on Saturday.

Maid falls eight floors to her death:  A mid-afternoon drama ended at a Jurong East condominium when a maid fell to her death after a desperate bid to save her failed. The 26-year-old Indonesian was believed to be cleaning the windows of her employer’s home at Ivory Heights condominium when she fell. Two people tried to pull her in but failed. Condominium residents said the incident was not the first: In 2007, another maid fell from the 21st floor of a neighbouring block. She was also said to have been cleaning windows when she fell. Between 2006 and 2010, a total of 27 maids died as a result of “falls from height”. The figure includes accidental falls and suicides. Several residents interviewed said that after the last incident, they had forbidden their maids to clean the exterior side of the window. Resident Elizabeth Chan, 65, said: “Just let the rain do the work. What’s the harm?”

Maid falls to her death from Jurong East condo:  An Indonesian maid fell to her death from a Jurong East condominium last Thursday. The 26-year-old was believed to be cleaning the windows of her employer's Ivory Heights unit when she fell, reported The Straits Times. A Filipino maid told the paper that she looked out when she heard screams. She witnessed two people trying to pull her in, but despite their efforts, the woman still fell to the ground. According to the paper, police and paramedics arrived at the scene after the police received a call at about noon on Thursday that a woman had fallen from the eighth floor of Block 122, Jurong East Street 13. They brought the victim to the National University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1.20pm. While her employers have declined to comment, residents the paper spoke to said the maid was new to the family, and could have been hired as recently as a week ago. Some residents also surmised that the people who tried to rescue the maid may have been an elderly couple who were at home at the time. The family comprises four young children, their parents and grandparents.

Update on Seattle Fall + Another!

Woman falls 80 feet while washing window at Grove Park Inn: Asheville — A woman washing windows at Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa today fell eight stories, but her injuries are believed to be non- life threatening. About 2:45 p.m., the employee of Hot Spring-based Sky Clean was washing windows and fell outside the Sammons wing of the inn, Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa president and CEO Craig Madison said. The woman landed on a grassy surface and was responsive and answering questions while en route to Mission Hospital. It wasn’t immediately known what caused the woman to fall. Sky Clean could not immediately be reached for comment. The windows are routinely cleaned at Grove Park once a month, Madison said. In his more than 30 years at the inn, Madison said he could not recall an accident like this.

SEATTLE - The employer of a window washer who survived an eight-story plunge from a downtown building says he's thankful the safety systems worked, saving the worker's life. "It couldn't have been any closer, so ... everything else aside, I'm 100 percent thankful," says Kevin Hansen (pictured -click for video), who owns window-washing company Morris-Hansen Enterprises. In an exclusive interview with Komo News, Hansen said he was in Bellevue when he got the call Thursday that one of his men had a fall. "You're basically just blank," he says. "You're hoping that it's a fall, somebody's up on their safety, you hope it's just a fall." And what a fall it was.
Witnesses said window washer Eduardo Lozada Castillo was screaming as he fell eight stories or more, smashing part-way through a window before continuing his fall down the side of the building toward the alleyway below. Surveillance camera footage shows his safety rope catching at the last possible instant, preventing Lozada from smashing bodily into the brick pavement. "We heard some yelling. We looked over at the window, we saw a body coming through the seventh-floor window and then he ... continued to fall," said eyewitness Robert Kleppen.
Kleppen said he thought Lozada was killed in the fall, not realizing that his safety harness stopped him inches from certain death. As it turns out, the window washer suffered only a broken pinky finger. He was taken away by ambulance and checked out at the hospital, just in case. "It's very dramatic, but the systems that they use, worked," Hansen says. Hansen says the company still hasn't figured out exactly what happened up there to cause Lozada to fall. But he says all the safety precautions were in place, and it doesn't appear Lozada did anything wrong.
In all his years in the business, Hansen says, he's never seen a fall like this. And he hopes never to see one again. Lozada was expected to return to work today - but decided he was simply too sore. His boss tells us he's now scheduled to be back on the job on Monday. Yesterdays Front Page.