Window washer survives 10-story fall

Window washer falls 10 stories from scaffolding in Newport News

Live from Norfolk, Va, a 24-year-old man fell 10 stories from a Newport News high-rise building on Friday. Read the official article here. Luckily, he is expected to make a full recovery. He is currently wearing a body cast and has a broken arm, broken foot, broken back bones and bruises on his lungs and heart.

Officials say he fell from the Maritime Square building which is near 26th Street and Washington Avenue. The incident happened around 1:45 p.m. on Sept. 9 while he was window cleaning.

Martin Stanford says he remembers free-falling and then having a tough time opening his eyes at the hospital. He doesn’t recall the impact. “When I first started dropping, I saw how high up I was,” he says. “The first thing I thought was that I’m about to die, and then I woke up in the hospital and I was still alive.” Stanford says he started repelling from buildings five days before the incident.

The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry is currently conducting an open case to investigate what went wrong.

Looking Up In Seattle - Scaffold Malfunction

In Seattle today a window washer was seen repelling down after a scaffold malfunction.

SEATTLE - Firefighters launched a rescue operation Tuesday after two window washers became stuck outside the upper floors of a high-rise building in downtown Seattle. Witnesses said that the window washers were trapped outside the 29th or 30th floor of the CenturyLink building in the 1600 block of 7th Avenue. 

Firefighters responded to the scene and rappelled down to the rooftop of the building for a rope rescue. Both window washers then safely rappelled down one at a time the several stories to the ground below. Seattle Fire officials said it appears an equipment malfunction was to blame for the washers getting stuck. 

Folks on the ground were captivated after two window washers got stuck outside the 23rd floor of a high-rise building in Seattle Tuesday. 

Window washers rescued from Seattle high-rise: Everyone could see how high up they were. These window washers -- their company is called "Panefully Clean" - weren't cleaning anything by this time. Just stuck. And just about every head was stuck, too, looking up. "Looks pretty insane!" said Richard Tarkington after he'd been watching for 45 minutes.

"I see the two guys up there," said Tarkington, his neck craning toward the tower. "They look like they're stable. So it's not too bad. But they are stuck, that's for sure." Birdie Sharp was asked what her fascination was with it. "Because there's always something," said Sharp, laughing. "We had a man in a tree. Now we have men on the building."

Seattle firefighters gearing up on roof top of downtown high rise after window washing hanging scaffold became stuck.  Rescuers rappelled down from the top of the building to the platform and then helped the workers lower themselves down to street level using a harness and rope.

The men told Seattle fire officials they began washing the windows at the old Century Link building in downtown Seattle at about 10 a.m. Tuesday.  It was nearly 1 p.m. and they were just about done, when their platform stopped working. So Seattle Fire Rescue One was called in to bring them down. "We just verified the systems that the contractor already in place," said Seattle Fire Lt. Frank Brennan. "That they were satisfactory; that the workers were in good health."

Then firefighter Michael Vander Beek rappelled down to check on them. "Both the gentlemen were doing well on the platform," said Vander Beek. "I just checked in on them to make sure they were comfortable doing the rappel." And they were. Nearly two hours after they got stuck, each window washer managed to rappel safely to the ground.

"We do this regularly for training," said Vander Beek. "It all went as planned." In fact, this is the first time that firefighter got to do this in the real world. He has been with the rescue unit not quite a year, he says. The window washers declined to talk.

Window Washer Wang Wants Work

Window washer Wang wants more work.

Economic Slump Leaves Tough Choices for Shanghai Job Seekers (Shanghai): For many job seekers in China, opportunities for work are best found in coastal cities such as Shanghai, where more than half its 24 million people come from other parts of the country. But as the cost of living continues to rise and the Chinese economy slows, some are considering returning home to look for work. Those who do, though, are also finding it hard to leave.

Tough times; Wang Congran left his home in Henan province when he was 15 and has lived mostly in Shanghai since then. He tried working in a factory for a while, but once he switched to window washing, he was hooked and now prefers a different sort of production line. “I am used to the work and if I had to do something else, if I had to work in a factory, I don’t think I could stand it,” Wang said, adding that the pay for factory work is not that good.

For the past year or so, he said, finding window washing jobs has become increasingly difficult. China has more than 200 million migrant workers, individuals like Wang who flock to the cities for jobs and opportunities.

In many ways though, Shanghai has become his home. Wang and his wife live in the city, and like many other migrant worker couples, their children live hundreds of kilometers away with their grandparents in their hometown. He said the slowdown has affected his wife’s work too. Before, she could work 12 hours a day and get overtime pay. Now, he said, the TV factory where she works has limited her to eight hours a day.

The couple would like to stay in the city, but soon they may have to make a choice. Their current residence, which has been an affordable place to live until now, is slated to be torn down. “It’s hard to say [what will come next],” he said. “If the house my wife and I are living in is torn down, we may have no place to stay. Shanghai is much too expensive,” Wang said.

Ex High Rise Guy Serves Vietnam Veterans

Chuck Schryer, an ex-high-rise window washer stands in front of the van he drives.

Volunteer drives 250K miles for disabled veterans (Marion, IL) - A retired U.S. Army veteran has spent the past 10 years driving disabled veterans to and from the Marion, Illinois Veterans Affair's hospital. Chuck Schryer served in the Army's 173rd Airborne and three years overseas during the Vietnam War. The retired high-rise window washer spends his free time serving disabled veterans like himself.

Schryer said he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and receives care from the Marion VA. He said he wanted to make sure other veterans like himself can receive care. “It’s been hectic at times,” Schryer said.

Schryer helped found Chapter 80 of the non-profit group Disabled American Veterans Charity, that serves veterans in the 29 counties in southern Illinois, southwest Indiana, and western Kentucky. Chapter 80 started by fundraising for one van and has grown to own and operate 11 vans. “For the veterans. I figure if we don’t take care of one another, no one else will take care of us,” Schryer said.

The DAV brings 125 veterans to and from the Marion VA each month. Schryer has driven more than 250,000 miles over the past 10 years. “You hear a lot of stories from the vets when you’re in there… It’s an honor to do,” Schryer said.

The DAV serving the Marion VA is in need of volunteers. Anyone with a valid driver’s license and proof of insurance can volunteer. If you’re interested you can call the Marion VA Hospital at 618-997-5311 and ask for volunteer services.

Vietnam

Time to forgive — Fifty years after the start of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and the rise of the antiwar movement that in part made the return home for soldiers less than welcoming, it is time to move on, said Chuck Schryer. “We both need to forget and forgive, the veterans and the people,” Schryer said. “There were a lot of harsh feelings when the Vietnam vet came home. He didn’t help the situation. We were called the bad boys, and we were the bad boys.

“It’s time to forgive.” Schryer, of Flora, served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. He made his remarks at a Marion VA Medical Center event to honor veterans of the tumultuous era. The Defense Department’s Vietnam War Commemoration was set by a presidential proclamation on May 28, 2012, establishing a 13-year program to remember the veterans. “While no words will ever be fully worthy of their service, nor any honor truly befitting their sacrifice, let us remember that it is never too late to pay tribute to the men and women who answered the call of duty with courage and valor,” President Barack Obama wrote at the time.

According to VA information, there are more than 7 million living Vietnam veterans and 9 million families of those who served. Schryer also gave his thanks to the Marion VA, but he has been doing that for 10 years. In May, he will be recognized by the Illinois chapter of the Daugthers of the American Revolution for his volunteer service to the Medical Center, donating 150,000 hours of his time, the most at the VA.

Among his service, Schryer drives veterans across the region to and from the VA for the Disabled American Veterans charity, logging 250,000 miles. He put in a plug for the DAV, saying more drivers are needed. “The VA in Marion is probably one of the best there is,” he said.

Reliable Window Washers A Godsend In The Booming Service Industry

Kyle Graham gives a Kew office window a sparkling view.

Reliable window washers a godsend in the booming service industry: To the scantily clad woman who ran in panic to the bathroom last week – window cleaner Kyle Graham, hanging on a rope at the time, wasn't trying to grab a picture with his camera phone. He was just taking a call. 

And by the way, there was a notice in your mailbox saying he'd be working that day ... so, keep your eyes peeled next time. "When we're doing apartment blocks we put up notices a few days before, but people don't notice that stuff," says Graham, who has been doing rope access work for three years – and has subsequently learnt a great deal about people.

Kyle Graham the window washer plies his trade in Kew.

"You sort of see into their lives: what books they're reading, what movies they're watching, how their bedrooms are super messy and piled with their junk, and the rest of the house is tidy, how they're sitting there in the morning in their underwear, that kind of stuff."

On one occasion, when Graham had long hair and a beard and looked much like Jesus, he descended to a window where a woman was kneeling in front of a cross and praying. "I don't know if I gave her a religious experience, but I sure gave her a fright," he says.

The other people routinely startled into action by sudden appearance of Graham are lazy office workers. "You see them on Facebook or the phone and it's obvious they're just slacking off. Once they see me they immediately get back to work."

As a species, the window washer – much like the pool man and gardener – has been the source of much ribald humour for, like, ever. They are, of course, people just doing a job – more of them with the growth in the service industry, the cultural blow-out of middle-class brunch and outsourcing of old fashioned weekend chores, and reality television's almost moral elevation of the home beautiful.

Cameron MacSween started cleaning windows 33 years ago as a teenager. Those were the days of the four-storey ladders (since banned) and a little anxiety when the ladder slipped a little or sunk in to the grass and threatened to tilt backwards. MacSween experienced the latter while cleaning at Xavier College one day and may explain why he tried another line of work for a while, before founding Cam's Window Cleaning 17 years ago.

Competition has grown with opportunity, and the technical demands of high-rise work, the advent of different grades of glass, and Occupational Health and Safety guidelines has turned a bucket-and-squeegee game into more of a trade. "There are now maybe 15 high-rise companies, 20 or 30 general window washing companies, and maybe 10 of them are mainstream ... then you've got your sole traders doing domestic work, down to your pensioners who get out and clean the local shops."

It's taken MacSween a long time to establish a reliable team who actually take an interest in their work – no-shows were once epidemic – and aren't prone to falling off ladders. He tells the story of an elderly Greek worker who resisted all gentle hints of retirement, no matter him falling into swimming pools and crashing the company car three times in a month. "In the end, I had to say that was enough."

While the new-world seriousness has taken over a game that once suffered too many cowboys, a saucy side lives on. MacSween long ago put a slab of beer on offer to any of the workers who might get "picked up" on the job. However, an outbreak of professionalism has meant the slab has gone unclaimed.

Graham, the Jesus-like rope man who works for MacSween, was recently confronted with a woman holding a phone number against the pane. He wasn't sure if it was a joke, a referral to a girlfriend or what. "I didn't follow it up."

There remains, however, the legend of a window cleaner called Peter Perfect. "He was a very good-looking bloke, worked out, had a good physique – and he knew it," says MacSween. "He sort of dressed to show himself off. We got a lot of requests from the ladies for Peter Perfect. He's now in another line of work."

The Illustrated Window Cleaner

An illustrated water colour look at high rise window cleaning in Australia.

What's it like to be a high-rise window washer? Head to the top of the concrete jungle with high-flying cleaner Caleb Wilkinson. By Lucy Fahey & Paul Donoughue.

My heart was pounding the first time I went off a 21-storey building. White knuckling is what they call it — going over the edge and just holding on for dear life.

If you leap over the edge, that will put a shock load onto your system and that can pop the anchor point from the roof. A 'controlled descent' is what people like to call it.

When I first started I was doing a building and I [was] facing the actual wall, and cleaning the window, I was 100 per cent fine. And then a big gust of wind turned me around so I was actually facing the Brisbane River. That was when I first pooed my pants. Not literally, but it scared the bejesus out of me.

When we go up to a roof to do a job, there should be certified anchor points installed. I normally do a figure-of-eight knot, and I put a carabiner onto the anchor point and hook my rope into that. The ropes that we use are rated to at least a minimum of two tonnes.

We'll have a spotter on the ground so that when we are lowering our rope we'll make sure that, yes, it is definitely touching the ground.

I have heard in the industry of people who just do their business into a bucket if they are doing window cleaning. Or they will just do it in their pants and then they will pour their water from their window cleaning onto themselves just to wash themselves off.

I am not that type of person. I will just hold it, and just try to get the job done.

There have been times where I was abseiling down and the people had their back to me but I could see their computer screens, and they were on Facebook when they should have been working. I have known of people who have abseiled down buildings and there have been people, you know, having relations inside or in the middle of getting dressed or something.

Once I was doing a taller window drop, and everyone knew we were there but I caught someone on the toilet. And I just swung around the other way until they had finished their business. Not the nicest thing, I can tell you that.

I've had a lady cry because she was scared for me. In order to stop her from crying, it was pretty much clean the window as quick as possible and move down out of her line of sight.

I was at the retirement home and one of the ladies was deaf, and she saw just my legs hanging from the window — she couldn't see the rest of me — so she ran to her next door neighbour. 'Oh my God, there's a boy on the side of the building, I think he's stuck, I don't know what to do'.

By the time they came out onto the balcony I was down [below them]. I was like, 'Hi, how's it going?' We do confuse some people and scare some people but all in all a lot of people just let us do our job and leave us alone.

It is always good to have a bit of interaction. We've had coffees offered to us. 'Thank you very much, but I can't secure the cup.'

A lot of the boys do wear sunscreen — it's just their personal choice whether they want skin cancer or not.

We were doing a building and it was about 35, 37 degrees outside and the windows that we were doing were black tinted windows, so the reflection that comes off that adds another couple of degrees. And you can get sunburnt just by the reflection of the windows.

A lot of people just say, 'I'm glad it's you and not me' and 'I would never do that — I hope you get paid a F-load of money'.

Window Cleaners Monkey Around

MEN AT WORK: A child gazes at window cleaners working while dressed in sheep and monkey costumes in Tokyo, Japan. Click to enlarge.

Washing away the old year: A child looks on mesmerised as window cleaners dressed as a goat and a monkey go about their task in Tokyo. According to the Chinese zodiac calendar, 2015 is the year of the goat or sheep and 2016 is the year of the monkey. The duo dressed up as monkey & goat commemorated the end of the year by reading some puns. The pair then climbed to the top floor of a skyscraper and got to work making the windows shine.

With just 10 days left in 2015, Japanese window cleaners traditionally dress in costumes representing the Chinese zodiac animals for this year and the next. A worker dressed as a sheep (2015) and another in a monkey costume (2016) started from the rooftop of a 15-floor building, cleaning as they worked their way down.

Michael Kelly - Still A Sky Ninja?

Australian media has been putting out window cleaning stories after the recent scare: Mike Kelly, a window washer records a stomach churning video down a Chicago building.

Window washer records stomach-churning down Chicago building: Extreme window washing is deemed as a terrifying job, well Michael Kelly can second that claiming that "it looks really hard, but it’s (actually) a lot harder than it looks."

The US man attached a GoPro to his helmet and filmed a 20 minute stomach-churning video, posting it to YouTube on Monday showing people what it is like wash high-rise windows on a building located in the Financial District of Chicago. You can hear the distress in Mr Kelly's voice before even beginning his decline, "this is my last drop of the day, probably of my life, because I don’t want to do this anymore."

"First we gotta do this 21st floor window, then swing in again to get the 20th floor and it gets a little easier on the way down," Mr Kelly said while he was contemplating a change of career. Mr Kelly can be seen sitting in a small, wooden seat as he guides himself down the stone wall the building by a sturdy rope staring down at the 100-metre drop.

He then uses a suction tool to grasp hold him close to the window as he sloshes soapy water onto the window. The window cleaner wipes the suds off with a wiper blade a few times and swings on to the next window, as the streets of Chicago stare him directly in the eyes. Mr Kelly has ropes that are tied down the bottom so he doesn’t swing out and hit a car, he also mentions in the video that it gets a little easier the further down he is.

 

I guess Mike Kelly did pack the job in? Perhaps the money just wasn't good enough to keep him in the job. As opposed to the news story above, the video above & featured in the news story is more than a year old. The skyninja website has now gone & only his "flickr" pictures remain, the newest from 2011. This video below is an old news piece on him. Marcus Leshock profiles Michael Kelly, a Chicago window washer who takes photos while he works. He used to sell prints on his website at http://skyninjaphotos.com (now gone).

Some of Mike Kellys photos. Click to enlarge.

Mike Kelly may have even been the inspiration behind the 2012 best short documentary directed by Nadav Kurtz called 'Paraiso' (Paradise) & featured in a previous blog (here as well) & is a documentary about immigrants working on Chicago’s tallest buildings as window washers.

This Cat’s Best Friend Is the Window Washer

This hilarious video was filmed by Rina Takei, the owner of the cat believed to be called Guinness, on the monthly visit from the window cleaner. In the clip the feline is filmed running along the lower part of the window while inside a high-rise building in Pimlico, London and following the window cleaner with his eyes.

This Cat’s Best Friend Is the Window Washer: YouTube user Rina Takei’s channel is filled with videos of house cat Guinness playing with the man dangling outside the fourth story window. The cat’s interest is seemingly piqued the moment the big black safety rope appears out the window with the furball trying to bat at it through the glass.

When the man that the video description calls “Window Cleaning Uncle” appears, the fun really gets started. While the window is cleaned, the cat goes to town trying to either play with the squeegee or decimate the invader, depending on what you think about cats and their motives. The cleaner, protected from the cat’s assault by a sheet of glass, is more than happy to play along. If their friendship (or ongoing war) gets any cuter they might have to take it to the next level—which is the next floor, of course.

Cat and window cleaner become BFFs after months of meeting at same window:  Guinness the cat may be a city slicker but he's got a soft spot for one human that he's made friends with since he moved into his new apartment. It all started for Guinness and the window cleaner when Guinness was just a kitten and started to interact with the abseiling window cleaner who comes to the building every week, but as the weeks and months went by, the two started developing a fun relationship and now, according to Guinness' owner Rina Takei, he waits every week for his 'Uncle' to appear at the window and say hello.

Window Cleaner Witnesses Urban Growth

Zhang Shimin has witnessed the astounding urban growth of the Chinese capital, Beijing.

Dangling on ropes, cleaner has unique window to China’s urban growth: With almost 20 years experience as a window cleaner, Zhang Shimin has witnessed the astounding urban growth of the Chinese capital. “There was nothing outside the Third Ring Road when I first came to Beijing,” he said, perched on the roof of a 31-story building overlooking the ring road.

Zhang arrived in 1993 as a migrant laborer from a rural area of Sichuan Province. Since then, he’s witnessed many of the traditional bungalows that housed most of the Beijing residents replaced by tall apartment blocks catering to the city’s growing middle class.

With the boom came demands for exterior cleaning as residents could no longer reach the outside of their windows. A few daring migrant workers like Zhang chose to take the risk and dangle down on ropes in pursuit of higher wages. The most demanding periods of the year are from the middle of March to the end of May; then from the end of September until the bitter cold stops them from working.

The contrast between the humble dwellings of the migrant worker cleaners as compared to the homes they look into everyday could not be greater, but Zhang says he seldom looks into the windows while working. “I won’t compare myself with them while working, we are totally different groups.”

In spite of the ever-expanding buildings, business is not all that it should be. Zhang explains that China’s strict anti-corruption campaign has affected their window cleaning business this year. “People who were taking rebates in the cleaning projects are holding back now, so there is really not as much [work] as normal,” he said.

Zhang’s high rise career started in Chaoyang district, the thriving business center of Beijing, which was enjoying the soaring property opportunities for the first ten years of the century. Construction work has now expanded around the major axis of the city. New high rise apartment buildings along with the expansion are providing new opportunities for Zhang and his team.

Emirati Aims To Clean Up

An automated, unmanned window cleaning system for washing the exterior surfaces and windows on high-rise buildings

Emirati aims to clean up with his window cleaning invention: Emirati Ahmed Ali Alshehhi, 35, has had his own workshop at his home in Ras Al Khaimah since he was in primary school. In 2002, while studying electrical engineering at Valparaiso University in the United States, he proved his flair for innovation by beating 140 other contestants from all over the world in a robotics competition with his creation – a firefighting robot.

Two years later, while working as an engineer in Abu Dhabi, he began noticing newly built skyscrapers around him and their window cleaners – and the extreme conditions under which they work. “It’s such a slow and risky process,” he says. “In Dubai, it’s the number-one source of industrial accidents. Inventors from all over the world have come up with several technologies to overcome this problem, but no technology has yet been able to widely penetrate the market safely and effectively.”

Alshehhi decided to have a go himself, designing an automated, unmanned cleaning system for washing the exterior surfaces and windows on high-rise buildings, with a very lofty goal. “I am focusing my built-up skills towards innovation that shall positively serve humanity in a better way,” he explains.

Ahmed Ali Alshehhi at the Takreer Research Centre in Abu Dhabi.

He started by building and testing several mini prototypes. In 2011, with a view to turning his invention into a sustainable business, he hired AGIP to file his patent application in several countries where the technology has potential. “After nearly three years I got my US patent and later the Canadian patent,” he says. “It is still ongoing in the UAE and elsewhere.”

As a full-time engineer, Alshehhi has found it difficult to find the time to obtain the resources he needs. The project has so far cost him about Dh750,000 out of his own pocket, but he has had support from Abu Dhabi Technology Development Committee for the US aspects of the process, and from his employer Takreer, or the Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company.

Last year, he built and tested a full-scale functional prototype, with good results. “Compared with manual cleaning, my system is eight to 10 times faster and also much safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly,” he says. “I am now working on further improvements.”

High Rise Window Washers of Manhattan Video

The men who provided their perspectives on it for this film, lifelong New Yorkers John McDermott and John Wren, turned out to be both completely sane and highly safety-conscious.

High-Rise-Window Washers of Manhattan: High rise window washing, once among the most dangerous jobs in the world, has become extremely safe, statistically speaking. Still, the gig remains capable of producing Youtube clips to make you weak at the knees, most memorably a harrowing mishap at the top of a hundred-and-one-story building in Shanghai, and an equally unpleasant situation in Denver. Never mind that, miraculously, nobody died in either case; the profession’s few remaining dangers are so spectacular—and the fears they cause so primal—that, to the casual observer, it is still the province of daredevils and lunatics.

For me, the opportunity to explore such a world was irresistible, even if the men who provided their perspectives on it for this film, lifelong New Yorkers John McDermott and John Wren, turned out to be both completely sane and highly safety-conscious. (Though, by their own accounts, they may not have entered the profession that way, thirty years ago.) The result—based on a 2013 piece in these pages and the product of the hard work of various producers and cameramen—also led me to an uneasy realization: When these men began window washing three decades ago, it was an accepted premise of American life that, through unions and union membership, an aspiring musician (McDermott) and a young baseball player with a career-ending injury (Wren) could take blue-collar jobs and eventually be afforded, through hard work, a middle-class quality of life. Today, with unions under renewed attack, the biggest threat to window washers comes no longer from gods but from mere mortals.

Seattle's Building Boom Means More Work For Window Washers

"Competition is fierce," said Mark Yokers, owner of Puget Sound Window Maintenance.

Wagtail squeegee's are used a lot in high-rise work.

Seattle's building boom means more work for window washers: The rapidly evolving Seattle skyline is proving to be a good thing for more people than just the developers. Window washers are experiencing a boom, too. More buildings means more dirty windows. "Competition is fierce," said Mark Yokers, owner of Puget Sound Window Maintenance.

When Yokers started his business in 1980, the landscape looked a lot different. Always in love with heights, he left the roofing business to grab a squeegee and harness so he could make a living by rappelling off Seattle's tallest buildings to wash windows. It's something he still loves. Now, his business has swelled to 10 employees and Yokers is hiring.

"Two-thirds of the buildings weren't even here when I started," he said. "In 2005-2008, a ton of building went on, then there was a lull. Now it's just going crazy". The city says 23 buildings have been built downtown in the past three years and Seattle has already surpassed its growth goals for 2024 by threefold.

Yokers takes pride in having a clean safety record and says the job is not as dangerous as it looks if you do it right. Still, there is inherent risk dangling hundreds of feet in the air without a platform. A starting window washer makes about $17 per hour.

Even those who take the job can find it's not for everyone. "Twice now, a guy gets to the bottom and they'll come to me and say, 'You know what? I don't think I'm cut out for this,'" said Yokers.

With Seattle's skyline growing every day, there is plenty of work for the city's window washers. "My chair now is mostly in front of a desk and I don't like that as well," he said. "I'd much rather be out hanging."