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.

Golf, Cheques, Wind & A Library For Window Cleaners In The News

Ever Wonder How Much It Costs to Clean All Those Library Windows? The Fountaindale Public Library has tons of window space. In fact, nearly the entire second and third floors are nothing but windows. Have you ever wondered how much it would cost to clean them?The library's board of trustees found out last week when they approved a measure to hire a window cleaning company to do the dirty work for them. The board will pay the Smudge Free Window and Cleaning Service, a Bolingbrook-based company, $3,460 annually to clean the hundreds of window in the new library. The company will clean the lower windows four times per year and clean the higher windows once per year. The measure was approved at last week's board meeting.

Wicked Winds Whip Through Borderland Sunday (EL PASO, Texas) - Winds whipped through El Paso Sunday afternoon and into the early evening. Construction crews working on the Coronado Tower in west El Paso left a window cleaning cart suspended about 4 feet off the ground. When the winds kicked up the cart began swinging and crashed into the building, breaking two of the windows. KFOX-14 spoke to the leasing company, who sent someone to secure the cart and board up the broken windows.

Pulex boab's at dawn: (l-r) Neville Hunter, Paul Lee, Club Pro Jason Laszkowicz, Rebecca Staley, Stuart Staley and Jason Kendrick are taking part in a charity golf day to raise money for Retts Syndrome in aid of Demi Turner, 2, who is Stuart's grand daughter. Picture: Andrew Roe.

Tot’s family want to raise ‘hole’ lot of cash: The family of a tot struck with a brain disorder are gearing up to get a charity challenge in full swing. Demi-Leigh Turner, aged two, has Rett Syndrome which has caused her to suffer from epilepsy and left her unable to walk. A group of keen golfers and window cleaners, including Demi-Leigh’s uncle Neville Hunter, of Poplar Road, Skellow, and her grandad Stuart Staley, of Charles Street, Skellow, have decided to do a sporting challenge which will see them play five rounds of golf on an 18-hole course in a day.

The dusk ‘til dawn challenge will take place on Tuesday at Owston Hall’s golf course and there will also be a raffle. The group want to raise around £1,000 which will be donated to the Rett Syndrome’s registered charity RettUK. Organiser and Demi-Leigh’s auntie, Becky Staley, 28, of Poplar Road, Skellow, said: “My niece is one of the youngest sufferers who was diagnosed before she was three-years-old but she’s still a happy, loving child. We are hoping to make that little bit of difference by providing money that could help to maybe one day find a cure.”

Cheque guarantee cards check out: It is the final weekend for the cheque card. Forty-one years after they were first introduced, they finally become defunct on Thursday, 30 June. No longer will you have to ask a tradesman to write your card number on the back of a cheque. No longer will there be a guarantee from the bank that the payment will be honoured. Many people are unhappy about the change, but the banks say such payments have almost died out anyway. They point out that the number of people using cheque cards has been falling for years. "In the last five years, the numbers have dropped off by 65%," says Jemma Smith, of UK Payments.
Cheques themselves will continue for at least another seven years, but without the backing of a guarantee. Last year, at least 95 million were written with a guarantee number on the back, although that was only about 7% of the total. Many people still rely on them for paying tradesmen, such as plumbers, carpenters, window-cleaners and electricians. For many of those tradesmen, the guarantee card is important for preventing fraud and making sure that they get paid. "Many people will write out a cheque, whether or not they've got money in the bank," says Charlie Mullins of Pimlico Plumbers. As a result, he fears his business will lose out when the guarantee system comes to an end. "No cheque card means cheques may not clear. It's going to be absolute chaos to do away with it," he says. 

The alternatives - Those people who need to use cheques are being advised to continue doing so. They will not disappear until 2018 at the earliest and that date may be changed in 2016. That means the banks have five years to come up with alternative payment methods. In the meantime, consumers can consider using debit or credit cards, paying on the internet, via mobile phones or using new contactless cards. In any case, cheques are falling in popularity. Whether that is because fewer places are accepting them, or because consumers prefer to use other payment methods, is hard to determine. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) insists it is the latter. They say that only one in 1,000 retail transactions now involves a cheque.