Drones Cleaning Windows

The prototype window cleaning drone that's looking for investors.

Window Cleaning Drones: Marcus Fritzsche says "Let the drones clean for you!" In the century of the “Internet of Things” and “Smart Home” it is time to automate also window cleaning. Our drones clean glass facades and roofs even at great altitudes. Our technology is applicable for almost every window size and window form. 

• Brilliant cleaning quality
• Cost-effective
• Cleaning hard to reach windows
• Cleaning up to 40 m2 surface per a 30 minutes flight
• Aviation-like safety features

Marcus Fritzsche with his window cleaning drone. He reached the semi-finals of the Dubai drone competition.

This is the application video for "The UAE Drones for Good Award". It shows a prototype drone for window cleaning and our vision of a complete autonomous swarm of intelligent Window Cleaning Drones. In order to achieve our goals we are looking for partners. If you want to be part of our journey contact us via mail in English or German: info@window-cleaning-drones.com

Window Cleaning The World’s Tallest Building

Daring window washers clean world's tallest building.

Window-cleaning the world’s tallest building: Dubai, United Arab Emirates — It’s hard work cleaning the windows of the world’s tallest building, but somebody has to do it. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is covered in 24,000 panes of glass. The workers who clean them start at the 160th floor and work their way down. That’s more than 2,700 feet. Before they start their work, they check and double-check their harnesses and ropes. They also measure wind speed because a gust of wind could be dangerous. It takes three months to clean every window, and then crews start all over again.

Meanwhile in China..

Climbing duo Vadim Makhorov and Vitaliy Raskalov scaled the 632 metre building without any ropes.

Shanghai Tower skywalkers climb second tallest building in world without safety equipment: Two Russian climbers filmed themselves defying gravity (and death) by climbing the world’s second tallest building without any ropes or climbing gear. Vadim Makhorov and Vitaliy Raskalov used head cameras to film themselves breaking into and climbing the still unfinished Shanghai Tower in China, as they scaled the 632m structure without any safety gear.

Their cameras show vertigo-inducing panoramas of Shanghai hundreds of metres below throughout their ascent. The pair even passed clouds on their journey to the top. The Tower will be one of the tallest buildings in the world upon its completion, second only to the 830 metre Burj Khalifa in the UAE, the tallest man-made structure in the world. When both climbers reach the top, their head-cams show them peering down into the abyss below. Makhorov told Yahoo! News: "We had to wait for hours for the clouds to part but it was well worth the wait, the view was like something from an aircraft window. "As soon as we saw a gap in the clouds were climbed right to the top of the crane and were able to get some great shots of the city below."

Don't look down! Vadim Makhorov sits in a cage above the Shanghai Tower, with the city sprawled more than 2,000 feet beneath him.

Vadim Makhorov and Vitaly Raskalov captured these shots from a height that would make most people sick.

A Day In The Life Of A Window Cleaner

Peter Manzi the managing director of Clearwater in the company's water purication plant where the equipment can filter up to 75,000 litres of water per day and is stored in these containers.

A day in the life: keeping Dubai water and windows up to scratch - Peter Manzi is the managing director of Clearwater, a window cleaning and maintenance company based in Dubai. The 53 year old Briton arrived in the UAE nine years ago having seen a new water purification system in the United Kingdom and sensed a window of opportunity opening in Dubai with the emergence of the property market. He began with three employees, which has grown to a staff of 20. The purification system he employs removes the sodium, calcium and magnesium to leave the water chemical free and windows streak-free.

6am

I have always been an early riser, not naturally, it’s because I have seven children, aged nine to 29. Only four of them are here at the moment, but Christmas can become chaotic. I get the kids ready for school. I live in Arabian Ranches with the kids at Jess Ranches, so I’m lucky enough to be able to walk them there. We have recently restructured the company so domesticity is a respite.

7.45am

I have a cup of tea and some toast and then pack the wife off to work. She is in property so is constantly busy. I swim 20 lengths every morning, it focuses my mind, strengthens my body and creates a positive energy that doesn’t leave me for the whole day.

8.45am

Clearwater has changed tack from the corporate world and rope access on high towers to the residential space. We moved from concentrating solely on window cleaning to adding a maintenance service. The service is a 24-hour operation so we have to be ready to react day or night to people with plumbing problems, AC maintenance or electricity concerns. When I began the business I partnered with the Lootah family, which helped with the licensing and the business development. That partnership ended 18 months ago as the Clearwater business didn’t fit with their core business. However, the family are still a valuable and dependable resource. We have the contract for cleaning the windows of all the Eppco and Enoc service stations. This has to be done at night which generally means the morning is more than busy.

11am

I often have site visits or contract negotiations. We recently signed the contract to do deep cleaning [when one tenant leaves and a home is readied for another] on 100 villas and preventive maintenance for 42 villas on Jumeirah Golf Estates. There has been a real movement in the business confidence of the city and it is showing in our contracts book.

1pm

I have lunch – usually a smoked salmon sandwich – which is generally eaten at my desk. I would like to expand regionally but for the moment I am relying on organic growth. The maintenance business is a very competitive field. It requires professional, prompt service and now we are seeing the benefit from the referrals. The past few years have been difficult but the fact that we have stayed in the market, delivering a competitive package, is now paying dividends.

3pm

There are usually more site visits in the afternoon whether it’s checking on the maintenance team or to see if an overnight clean has been done correctly. I believe in our product and the water purification system that we use [for window cleaning] so I have diversified into selling bottled cleaning water for interior windows. It was a natural extension as one can see a myriad of products in every supermarket that use countless chemicals to clean windows.

Our product is environmentally friendly and we keep our carbon footprint as low as possible. Our fleet of vans run on bio diesel, sourced from the Lootah family. The bottled water business is still in its infancy as the patent costs and the scale of distribution is huge but we are in Géant and Lulu. It probably needs a Dh3 million investment to push that side of the business, which at present I feel would be challenging, but you don’t get many cleaning products that are safe enough for your children to drink and kind to the environment. I am planning for a very good 2014 with 50 per cent growth in manpower and 28 per cent growth in profits. When you look at global commerce right now there are few better places to be in business than here.

6pm

I leave for home and make sure the kids have done all their homework. If there is something on the TV, or Chelsea, I may watch but generally the business always needs some attention. Supper is usually pasta at 8pm.

10.30pm

It’s lights out and straight to sleep as long as there has not been too much stress that day.

Thunder, Lightning & Earthquakes In Dubai For Window Cleaners

If the rain begins to fall in the middle of a job, the cleaners sometimes have to start all over again.

Weather that leaves UAE men swinging in the rain: Window cleaners who hang from ropes outside skyscrapers in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are constantly watching for change in the weather. "The last time we saw rain like this was a few years ago. In 2012 it only rained once. It's not the hard rain that cleans things, it's a muddy rain and things get even worse," said Alain El Tawil, the managing director at Gecko.

If the rain begins to fall in the middle of a job, the cleaners sometimes have to start all over again. Gecko cleaners were halfway through cleaning a building in Abu Dhabi when it started to rain. The job that should have taken 20 days will now probably take 30. "We have to do it again," Mr El Tawil shrugged.

Rain is not their only problem. Amel Vriesmann, head of the rope access division at Megarme, said: "We need to stay within the parameters of the winds. The limit is 20-25 knots depending on the scope of work you do. When the rain becomes severe, we pull out. But a few drops don't stop us."

Last week's thunder and lightning had cleaners abseiling down to safety. "Once we saw lightning, we were off the building. We have a daily weather forecast email among all the management. Rain is OK but thunder and lightning is a no-go," he said.

World's Highest Window Cleaners - It Took Us Three Months To Clean Burj Khalifa (Nick Vassilev) -  It took an Australian window cleaning company 3 months to clean the windows of the tallest building in the world - Burj Khalifa. Ever wondered about how they keep the windows of these skyscrapers clean? The usual options available to window cleaners such as ladders and high-level Reach and Wash cleaning systems aren’t an option there.

London, UK -- Travel and tourism websites, programmes and brochures continually bring us pictures of tall skyscrapers in some far-off land, man-made mountains of glittering glass and steel. But pause to think about what has to go on to keep the windows of these skyscrapers, such as the Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sparkling and clean.

Usually, window cleaners working with exterior windows above the ground have several options. “We encourage our window cleaners to use high-reach window washers that can be operated from the ground for health and safety reasons,” said a spokesperson from the London-based cleaning company Anyclean, which offers window cleaning alongside a range of other cleaning services. “Ladders are OK if used correctly for two-storey houses and skylights on bungalows.  The Reach & Wash machines can reach up 75 feet, which takes care of most domestic and office window cleaning situations, but for anything higher than this, you need cradles, harnesses and cherry pickers.”

So what did the company responsible for keeping the windows of the Burj Khalifa clean do? The Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building at 2717 feet tall with a total of 24,830 windows, which make up 1,292,500 square feet of glass to clean.  The Australian company CoxGomyl, which is responsible for getting the windows clean for the opening ceremony (held back in 2010), took three months to complete the process of cleaning the windows.

This window cleaning team specialises in making equipment known as Building Maintenance Units (BMUs) as well as other high-rise high-tech window cleaning equipment. A number of these BMUs are permanently in place on the Burj Khalifa and the machines use a system of tracks and cradles to reach every single window. The tracks are built into the exterior façade of the building, and window cleaners are carried in these cradles (which are housed in special cavities inside the building when not in use) to where they can work at washing the windows. To clean the windows, they use ordinary soap and water. “You can imagine how expensive it would be if they used chemical window cleaning products,” said the representative from Anyclean. “But water does work well at cleaning just about everything.”

The window cleaners who operate in the highest BMU on the Burj Khalifa hold the current record for world’s highest window cleaners.  “Good for them,” said the Anyclean representative. “But I think I like keeping my feet on the ground!”

909 high-rises, 448 skyscrapers in Dubai... But do you know how to survive an earthquake? Tall order: Dubai has 909 completed high-rises, including world’s tallest tower, tallest hotel and tallest residential buildings (By Vicky Kapur) -  Two major earthquakes have rocked the Arab world and the UAE in the month of April: the first one on April 9, and the second one on April 16. Both the earthquakes were follwed by minor aftershocks. A 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook Iran and the rest of the Arab world at around 4pm UAE time on April 9, 2013, followed by smaller aftershocks. The death toll from the quake was last reported at 37, with hundreds others injured, mostly in Iran.
 

The epicenter of the April 16 quake, of 7.8 magnitude, was also in Iran, near the border with Pakistan, and it rocked the region at 2.44pm UAE time (10.44am GMT). The UAE's official seismology authority, National Centre of Metrology and Seismology, confirmed to  Emirates 24|7 that the epicentre of the most recent quake was 650km off the coast of Ras Al Khaimah in UAE. However, the tremors from the quake could be felt in locations as far and wide as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Manama, parts of Saudi Arabia as well as in Oman, with minor swaying of high-rises reported in these locations.

Earthquakes are not common in Dubai and the rest of the UAE, but nature has its way of showing who’s the boss every once in a while. Perhaps because we are not used to experiencing frequent tremors, residents of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, especially those living and working in high-rises, may not necessarily be adept at knowing what to do when tremors strike. It is no secret that Dubai is home to the tallest residential skyscraper cluster in the world. Not only does Dubai boast of the tallest building in the world, the imposing Burj Khalifa, but also the tallest residential tower (Princess Tower), the tallest hotel in the world (JW Marriott Marquis Dubai), among many more.

According to Emporis, a global provider of building information, Dubai has 909 high-rise buildings , including 448 skyscrapers (comprising 40 floors or more). According to SkyscraperPage.com, Dubai has 387 towers that are more than 99 metres in height, of which 84 are more than 202 metres tall and 26 are 301 metres or more in height. Indeed, there are three towers in Dubai that are at least half a kilometre (500 metres) in height. That’s a tall order, indeed, if there was one.

While we’ve all come to live and love our high-rises in Dubai, we can’t all claim to know about what do in case an earthquake strikes. Proof of this was the recent Iran quake, tremors of which were felt by us here in Dubai. There was confusion all along, with a number of office and residential buildings evacuated on the one hand, and with others going along with their daily chores as if nothing had happened. But if you need to be prepared the next time tremors strike, wherever in the world you are, you’ll do well to understand the following pointers (SOURCES: Earthquake Country and Go Los Angeles.

INDOORS: DROP, COVER, HOLD ON…

• DROP to the ground; take COVER by getting under a sturdy table or other piece of furniture; and HOLD ON until the shaking stops. If there isn’t a table or desk near you, cover your face and head with your arms and crouch in an inside corner of the building. Check out this PDF .

• Stay away from glass, windows, outside doors and walls, and anything that could fall, such as lighting fixtures or furniture.

• Quickly move to a safe location in the room such as under a strong desk, a strong table, or along an interior wall. The goal is to protect yourself from falling objects and be located near the structural strong points of the room. Avoid taking cover near windows, large mirrors, hanging objects, heavy furniture, heavy appliances or fireplaces.

• If you are cooking, turn off the stove and take cover.

• Stay in bed if you are there when the earthquake strikes. Hold on and protect your head with a pillow, unless you are under a heavy light fixture, window or anything else that could fall. In that case, move to the nearest safe place (i.e. under a desk or in an inside corner).

• Use a doorway for shelter only if it is in close proximity to you and if you know it is a strongly supported, load-bearing doorway. Brace yourself on the side with the hinges to avoid the door swinging at you.

• Stay inside until shaking stops and it is safe to go outside. Research has shown that most injuries occur when people inside buildings attempt to move to a different location inside the building or try to leave.

• Be aware that the electricity may go out or the sprinkler systems or fire alarms may turn on.

• DO NOT use the elevators, even if they are working. There may be aftershocks.

• If you’re in your hotel room, stay there. There are usually aftershocks, and sometimes they may be worse than the original earthquake. Under a sturdy desk or in an inside corner of your room is the safest place to be, even if you’re on the 40th floor. If there’s a heavy bookcase next to a match-stick desk, don’t get under the desk.

• If you are in a restaurant, get under the table.

OUTDOORS: Stay Put

• Move to an open area where falling objects are unlikely to strike you.

• Move away from buildings, powerlines, streetlights, utility wires and trees.

• Once in the open, stay there until the shaking stops. The greatest danger exists directly outside buildings, at exits, and alongside exterior walls. Ground movement during an earthquake is seldom the direct cause of death or injury. Most earthquake-related casualties result from collapsing walls, flying glass, and falling objects.

TRAPPED UNDER DEBRIS

• Do not light a match.

• Do not move about or kick up dust.

• Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or clothing.

• Tap on a pipe or wall so rescuers can locate you. Use a whistle if one is available. Shout only as a last resort. Shouting can cause you to inhale dangerous amounts of dust.

AFTER THE QUAKE

• Check for injuries, attend to injuries if needed, help ensure the safety of people around you.

• Check for damage. If your building is badly damaged you should leave it until it has been inspected by a safety professional.

• If you smell or hear a gas leak, get everyone outside and open windows and doors. If you can do it safely, turn off the gas at the meter. Report the leak to the gas company and fire department. Do not use any electrical appliances because a tiny spark could ignite the gas.

• If the power is out, unplug major appliances to prevent possible damage when the power is turned back on. If you see sparks, frayed wires, or smell hot insulation turn off electricity at the main fuse box or breaker. If you will have to step in water to turn off the electricity you should call a professional to turn it off for you.

Cleaning The Most Difficult Windows In The Middle East

The UAE’s expanding array of towering and bizarrely shaped buildings requires ever more extraordinary measures to keep them clean. Burj Khalifa, Dubai Height 828 metres, Emaar’s Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world.

Window cleaning reaches for new heights in the United Arab Emirates: Dangling on ropes 150 metres in the air in the desert heat, six young men are systematically washing down the 12,500 glass panes that clad the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company's (Adnec) striking Capital Gate centre. Not a job for anyone with a fear of heights, the precipitous descent involves clinging to the underside of the world's steepest man-made tower using specially designed suction cups. Meanwhile, a team at the bottom of the tower has the less terrifying task of hosing down the lower floors from a moving platform.

It takes the team 30 days to wash the entire building (pictured below). And the moment they finish they have to start again. "We have to use a variety of techniques to clean our buildings, from rope access to boom systems, gantry systems, cradles and spraying with high-pressure hoses," says Alain El Tawil, the managing director of Grako, the company in charge of cleaning the tower, which leans at an angle of 18 degrees off vertical. It is also responsible for keeping the Burj Khalifa gleaming as well as a host of other oddly shaped and difficult to clean edifices.

The Capital Gate tower has gondolas built into the design to clean it's exterior.

With some of the world's tallest and most bizarre buildings, the Middle East has become a study in the art of the possible. For window cleaners, it's becoming more and more of a challenge to keep up. "Each company wants to build something different," says Mr El Tawil. "And that means making their buildings bigger and more complicated. Over the last eight years we have seen the company grow by 100 per cent each year in terms of staff numbers and we always have to keep recruiting in order to meet the demand."

Mr El Tawil's firm is not the only one challenged by the growth of bizarre building design. The struggle to maintain such structures is a problem faced throughout the construction process. "As tall buildings grow more sophisticated, systems to maintain them are increasingly addressed in the initial designs. Architects need to determine how workers will handle issues, where materials will be stored and how crews can move around the building without affecting tenants," says Kevin Brass, the public affairs manager at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a think tank based in Chicago. "In buildings, space is always at a premium. Anything that takes up rentable space slices in to the economics of a building. As buildings grow taller, the designers spend an extraordinary amount of time determining where to locate the mechanical apparatus," he says.

 Capital Gate, Adnec headquarters, Abu Dhabi- Height 160 metres Known as Abu Dhabi’s “leaning tower”, this 53,100-square-metre building leans four times as steeply as the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. Although the building has sets of gondolas built into the design to clean its exterior, Grako’s Alain El Tawil says abseilers are used instead because the unusual building’s lean makes it hard for ordinary machinery to reach the windows. Abseilers can also work in bigger teams, making the cleaning process quicker. To reach the underside, each window cleaner must first descend on a rope then use suction pads to overcome gravity and get to those hard-to-clean surfaces. The bottom of the building is cleaned using a device on wheels with a mechanically raised and lowered platform and high-pressure jets of water.

The trend is big business for Theo van der Linde, the operations manager for CoxGomyl, a company that specialises in installing the gondolas used to clean many tall buildings. As a rule of thumb, the more complicated and bizarrely shaped the building, the more work for specialists such as Mr van der Linde. "We work from the start with the architects who will be doing the overall design of the building and then assist them to ensure that the building maintenance units can reach all areas of the building to do cleaning or maintenance on the facade," he says. "Our specialist design team then design the gondolas according to the geometry of the specific building. The actual cleaning process is conventional using water, detergent and a applicator with the window wiper to remove the access water, the same as what they will do when they clean your car windows at the filling station, except that it is a few hundred meters above ground level. Whoever is going inside the cradle needs to have an aptitude for heights."

Aldar headquarters building, Abu Dhabi - Height 110 metres
 The world’s first and only circular tower, Aldar’s 23-storey, 666,000 square feet head-office building requires some of the most complicated and advanced cleaning and maintenance equipment in the world to scale it. “The building shape is quite interesting here as it is round in the one plane and oval if you look at it from the side,” says Cox Gomyl’s Theo van der Linde. “The BMU [building maintenance unit] was designed to cover the whole building, therefore it can travel all the way around the building from one side to the other side in order to offer access to all the facade. “This BMU has three cradles to carry out the cleaning of the facade. We have two cradles on either [circular] side of the building. Therefore, two teams can work simultaneously.”

Facilities management companies, too, say the job is getting more demanding as the shapes and sizes of buildings become ever more complicated. "We use a number of techniques to carry out facade and roof cleaning, including abseiling or rope access, man-lift equipment, suspended platforms and, finally, cleaning from the ground with a water-fed pole system," says Mark Cooke, the general manager of business operations in the Middle East at the facilities management company UGL. "It depends on the type of buildings and the possible accessibility for facade cleaners to conduct their cleaning. Each building is treated individually, which includes a risk assessment and a safe work method statement."

So how much does all this cost? Mr El Tawil says an average tall building can cost anything between Dh30,000 (US$8,167) and Dh60,000 per cleaning. A large part of that relates to the access requirements and the skill sets, training and the certification required in carrying out the cleaning, says Mr Cooke. Labour costs and the level of safety standards adhered to are also important. Window cleaners and their managers can earn anything between Dh1,500 and Dh25,000 a month. 

Aspire Zone, Doha Sports City, Qatar - Height 300 metres for the tower, making it the country’s tallest The futuristic tower, which makes up the centrepiece of the 250-hectare Aspire Zone, was designed to resemble a torch during the 2006 Asian Games. It also has a special video screen woven into a wire mesh measuring more than 1,000 square metres. The rest of the complex includes a mosque, sports dome and football stadium. The Australian company UGL is charged with facilities management at the site, which requires cleaning from ground level using a telescopic pole and abseiling down the tower to clean the facade by hand. “We need to complete six cleaning cycles per year and each cycle comprises of 60 calendar days with a team of six facade-cleaning specialists,” says Mark Cooke, UGL’s general manager for business operations in the Middle East.

Why We Build: the story of storeys, getting ever taller. The past few years have seen the development of a certain sport among western writers in gently mocking Dubai. Astronomical construction figures are laughed at, outrageous designs ridiculed and architecture intellectuals pretend to be vexed about what Dubai might represent as a model for the cities of the future. Readers are invited to shake their heads at the state of affairs at the Burj Khalifa, a building that boasts an Armani Hotel and the world's highest restaurant but needs sewage trucks parked at its base to take away the waste. Read more..

 

 From the many skyscrapers of JBR and the flamboyant Palm Jumeirah to the elegance of the Burj Al Arab and the colossal Burj Khalifa, Dubai has a wealth of imposing structures.

Burj Khalifa, Dubai Height 828 metres, Emaar’s Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. The Burj’s complicated shape makes it one of the most challenging buildings a window cleaner is ever likely to face. Designed to incorporate traditional Islamic patterns into a tri-petalled flower resembling a desert rose, the problem for window cleaners is to get around the glass curves in order to clean. The building is cleaned using both abseilers and cleaners standing on elevated gondolas. CoxGomyl has set up 18 gondolas to maintain the building including the highest building maintenance unit in the world working at a height of 715 metres. Three sets of machines – stationed at levels 40, 73 and 109 – are mounted on horizontal tracks, which means they can travel across the facade.

Latest Window Cleaning News & Photo's

A worker cleans the exterior windows of an office building in Munich, southern Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011.

Window cleaners retrieve ropes on top of a skyscraper in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011.

Plea after vehicle arson in Billingborough: A Business owner has appealed for witnesses after one of his vehicles was stolen and set fire to. A car owned by Billingborough-based window cleaners Sparkles was taken from the road in front of the firm’s office in Vine Street between 8pm and 9pm on Monday, August 22. The vehicle, which contained about £500 worth of cleaning equipment, was found on fire at Thorns Wood, off Mareham Lane, at about 9.15pm. Owner David Manning, 40, was at a loss to explain why the car was stolen. He said: “I was gutted when I found out. The people who did this are very vindictive, I don’t understand why they have done it. “You don’t expect things like that to happen living in a small village. “We are a very small family-run business and it meant my staff couldn’t work for a few days, which is bad enough on the financial side.”

The company owns another vehicle but was unable to complete scheduled jobs in the days following the theft and Mr Manning had to pay his four part-time staff out of his own pocket at a further cost of £500. Mr Manning is urging anyone who saw the silver Vauxhall Zafira, registration DV52 0AL, to come forward. He added: “Because the vehicle is well known and is very distinctive with two ladders on top, we are hoping that someone will have seen it and will come forward.” Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue confirmed that two crews from Sleaford had attended the blaze, and were on the scene for two hours. The fire also damaged about 160 sq ft of scrub around the car. Police spokesman James Newall said no arrests had been made so far, and investigations are ongoing.

A Scarborough woman rescued from a burning flat has admitted deliberately setting fire to the property. Elaine White, 42, pleaded guilty to being reckless after the fire in Northstead Flats, in Long Walk, Northstead, earlier this month. White, who was dramatically rescued by two eye-witnesses, was originally charged with arson but admitted the lesser offence when she appeared at York Crown Court. The court heard White set fire to her home after locking herself in. She was dragged to safety by window cleaner Ryan Burns, 27, and Jim Murphy, 58, who used a set of ladders to get into the property through an open window. They then help fire crews carry the woman to safety. Prosecuting, Alan Mitcheson, told the court White had been sent by Scarborough magistrates on the original indictment, but, after reviewing the case, he felt that the only life which she had intending harming was her own. White was remanded in custody with the case adjourned until October. Speaking after the incident, Paul Burnett, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue crew manager, praised the actions of Mr Burns and Mr Murphy. He said: “It is very commendable that they have gone and acted the way that they have.

As they dangled four stories in the air, the new Tulsa Fire Department recruits didn't have to worry about whether the apparatus would hold. Forty-nine recruits are less than a month away from completing their training, which began in May. Once they graduate, some will start work the very next day, Smallwood said. When they do, they need to know how to meet the challenges firefighters face on emergency calls of all types. "You've got to prepare for every eventuality, which is extremely difficult," said Capt. Lee Horst, one of the training captains teaching the recruits. Tuesday's training focused on rescues where the victim was in a precarious situation and needed to be hoisted to safety, Horst said. The recruits all learned how to set up the hoisting apparatus and use it to lift someone. The procedure could be used if someone has fallen into a ravine or if a window washer gets stuck on a high-rise building and needs to be brought back up, Horst said.

Toxins Lurk in Cleaning Supplies: Inhaling even small amounts of bleach can damage your nervous system, and children are particularly at risk. Did you know that bleach often hides in products such as Drano, Tilex and Cascade, which don't say "bleach" on the label?  Bleach isn't the only chemical that is hazardous to our health. The kitchen harbors several toxic substances. Ammonia (in window and all-purpose cleaners) is an eye irritant that can also cause headaches and lung irritation. Petroleum distillates (metal cleaners and polishes) can damage the nervous system, skin, kidneys and eyes, and there is bleach in dishwasher detergent. In the laundry room there are petroleum distillates in spot removers, the ingredients in mothballs (naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene) are suspected carcinogens, and residues from fabric softeners can cause allergic reactions. Toilet bowl cleaners contain hydrochloric acid, which can burn the skin or cause blindness if splashed in the eyes. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website has more scary information.

Transguard takes bigger slice of $8 billion UAE FM market: The Transguard Group, an Emirates Group company, is targeting new potential business within the retail sector through its rapidly expanding facilities management (FM) division, after a raft of new contract wins awarded to its Cleaning and Hospitality teams. According to the MasterCard 2011 Worldwide Index of Global Destination Cities, both Abu Dhabi and Dubai report impressive growth rates for inbound tourism this year against 2010 figures, at 15.5% and 17.3% respectively. “Tourism and retail go hand-in-hand, and the UAE’s commitment to driving inbound visitor numbers is key to creating major business potential as we move forward,” added Hall. The company has also been awarded a contract for exterior window-cleaning services at the Marina Quays residential development in Dubai and the Park Hyatt hotel in Abu Dhabi.

New and not improved: Remember the Assembly bill that would require companies that provide building security, maintenance, window cleaning or food services to retain the employees of the previous service contractor for 90 days? Well, AB 350 has been amended. Which is to say it has been made worse. The new version exempts a new contractor from being forced to hire an employee of the previous contractor if said employee has been convicted of specific violent crimes. That makes perfect sense until one considers that, by listing specific crimes that free the new company of such hiring obligations, AB 350 implies that the contactor must hire felons convicted of other offenses -- say, embezzlement, grand theft or arson. At least that's the reading of the California Chamber of Commerce's legal staff. Is that a justifiable take-away? Hard to say, but our original objections stands: Newly hired contractors shouldn't have to take on the problems of their predecessors.

Landscaper falls victim to own success - Too many customers sign up for online deals. Merchants shouldn’t make online group-buying offers unless they can deliver, says the owner of an Eastern Shore landscaping company that’s having trouble doing so. Rob Monk, who owns Roscoe’s Landscaping, said Tuesday he’s been overwhelmed by the number of customers who signed up for the three daily deals he offered on Dealfind and Kijiji in the spring. "It seemed like a good idea at the time but I’d never do it again," he said in an interview from Lake Charlotte. Monk said 38 people signed up for a lawn-care package he offered on Kijiji in April for $140. The following month, 169 people paid $69 for interior and exterior window washing and gutter cleaning on Dealfind.  Another 120 people bought a $60 voucher on Kijiji for power washing. The Roscoe’s owner said he can only work on three or four houses a day and has been hampered by the wet weather. "We’re trying to do the work and it just takes time to get to everybody; we’re working our butts off to get to it," said Monk, who started the business this year.

Roscoe’s had employees earlier this summer but Monk said he couldn’t afford to keep them. He and his son are now trying to catch up on the workload. The vouchers are good for a year and Monk is aiming to have most of them honoured by Oct. 31. Dealfind’s co-founder says there’s not much the company can do if a merchant overextends themselves. "Respectfully, I think it’s a mistake to run too many deals," Gary Lipovetsky said from Toronto. About 50 Roscoe’s buyers have received full refunds from Dealfind so far, which Lipovetsky called "a higher than average amount." As of Tuesday afternoon, the website says it has issued more than 1.2 million vouchers and saved consumers $260 million since it started last year.

"It is really a minority of the cases that it does happen," Lipovetsky said, referring to problems redeeming vouchers. He said the company has policies to protect consumers, including screening merchants and having customer service agents available. Dealfind says it issues full refunds if buyers can’t redeem the voucher or aren’t happy with the service. Ken MacKenzie of Dartmouth said he’s been trying to get Roscoe’s to clean his windows and gutters for four months. "The goal was to get our gutters done this summer and, of course, the summer is gone," he said Tuesday.

MacKenzie, who bought the voucher May 3, said he’s made four appointments with Roscoe’s since then but the company has failed to show each time. He said Dealfinders has been trying to help him. After Roscoe’s failed to show last Thursday, MacKenzie began asking Dealfinder for his money back. He’s also launched a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. A spokesman for the bureau couldn’t be reached Tuesday for comment. According to its website, the bureau has given Roscoe’s an F rating, on a scale of A-plus to F. The bureau says Roscoe’s failed to respond to two complaints filed against it in the last year.

Twit-tw-ouch! The lasting impression left by an owl after hitting window. Splat! An unfortunate owl has fallen fowl of a living room window after flying straight into it - and leaving this incredible outline. The poor beast left a near-perfect silhouette complete with wings, feathers and beak on glass in Glasgow earlier this year. It is one of a series of ghostly impact images collected online that show the last moment of life of these birds of a feather. Most of the birds are believed to have died - but miraculously a pigeon that hit a moving car and left a print on the side still managed to fly away. Exeter University post doctorate student Richard Heeks, 38, runs a group on picture sharing website Flickr where contributors from across the world submit their amazing bird-splat pictures. 'I first became aware of this phenomenon when I was having a weekend in Yorkshire,' explained Richard. To prevent birds striking windows the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds recommends fixing plastic stickers to windows. It says stickers shaped like hawks and other birds of prey are particularly effective at scaring away most other types of birds. It is estimated that thousands of birds die each year by flying into windows.

Belfast brothers Robert and Ian Stewart are the key witnesses in Northern Ireland's largest paramilitary trial for 25 years. In the summer of 2008, they packed one bag between them, drank a bottle of vodka, fled their homes in north Belfast and caught a ferry to Scotland. Between them, the two loyalist paramilitaries had £2,000 in cash, stolen from their disabled parents.  Much of it was later spent on alcohol. Robert Stewart, 37, has been an alcoholic most of his life and was a habitual drug user. He took ecstasy tablets, cocaine, cannabis, acid and glue. He also used to take 60mg a day of prescription valium. Robert Stewart joined the UVF in his early 20s. As a teenager, he was a keen Liverpool fan and worked in a butcher's shop. But he soon gave it up. Although he claimed unemployment benefit, he admitted to the court he "did the double" by working as a part-time window-cleaner. He usually worked three days each week, for just 3-4 hours and normally with a hangover.

Dear Answer Man, did you know that the window glass for 1WTC is being made by Viracon of Minnesota? — Art Reckinger, Rochester. I do now. Viracon, based in Owatonna, has been involved in a lot of high-profile projects, including the Comcast Cower in Philadelphia, another glass-skinned skyscraper that bears some resemblance to the New York project. According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the components of the 1 World Trade Center building, the major building under construction on the former site of the twin towers, are being assembled by Benson Industries, a curtain wall contractor based in Portland, Ore., with Viracon as contractor for the glass. The building will have 82 floors, but with its spire will be 1,776 feet tall, making it the tallest in the United States and reputedly the tallest all-office building in the world when it opens in 2013.

Putting Their Guard Up: In what City Council Speaker Chirstne Quinncalled an efort to make better use of city resoures, the council approved Intro 531-A, which would step up enforcement of city rules requiring that all apartments occuped by young children have guards on the window. Currently, only health inspectors have the authority to check for window guards. The bill would also allow housing inspectors to check for the window guards and to order owners to install them where needed. Owners who do not coply within 21 days face fines. Emphasizing the measure does not take any authority away from the health department, Quin said it "also gives that power to housing inspectors who are out there every day." In the city, Quin said, "The number of children who fall out of windows is not as high as it was at one time," but national figures indicate the need to make sure that window guards are in place.

18yo writes book about his $50k debt: While most 20-year-olds are busying themselves with plans for the weekend, Piers Elliot has completed his first book. Titled Poor Me! How I Stuffed Up By Getting Into Debt So You Don’t Have To, the book details the young author’s quick decline into fiscal fiasco. On his 18th birthday, Elliot was debt-free. A week later he signed a $15,000 lease on a shiny new Ford Falcon XR6. Now he faces a seven-year struggle to pay off an accumulated $50,000 debt. “I thought I knew best,” he said. “If I’d heard from other kids what it really means to owe a lot of money I’m sure I’d have thought twice.” The Breakfast Point resident, who works as a high-rise window cleaner and delivers pizzas at night to repay the debt, made his literary debut with the help of mum Domini Stuart, a freelance journalist. The book also includes accounts from other youngsters who have found themselves in financial strife.

Nick Petrovic, a psychologist and contributor to the book, said the instance of young people getting into debt may have a strong neurological underpinning. “Young people tend to be more impulsive as their brains are still developing,” he said.  An older and wiser Elliot hopes his book will help others steer clear of making bad financial decisions. “The trouble is that, when debt is a problem, you feel so ashamed and embarrassed you keep quiet about it,” he said. “Nobody gets to hear the bad news, so that’s why I’ve decided to speak out.”

Seven Peaks buys troubled CityDeals: The abrupt shutdown of CityDeals.com last week left merchants wondering if they would get paid and consumers questioning whether the certificates and gift cards they bought were worthless. The website sold coupons for goods or services from businesses that hoped deep discounts would attract new customers who would then return again and again. CityDeals owes Pleasant Grove chiropractor Geoff Moultrie about $1,700, said his wife, Mandy Moultrie. "We would just like to get our money back and we would be happy. We just don't know who is liable," she said. Seven Peaks has worked around the clock making arrangements to take care of merchants that have been waiting for payments from CityDeals, Law said. It also is working with businesses to ensure coupons sold on on the website to date are honored. "Most everyone is willing to deal and is anxious to move forward," he said.

But Seven Peaks is not paying cash. How it will compensate vendors is unique to each situation, he said. One approach is to offer credits to its water parks and fun centers. "I don't know what I'm going to do with $20,000 worth of credits to Seven Peaks over my lifetime," said Todd Elkins, owner of Sharper View Window Cleaning. CityDeals didn't pay him in June and July. "There's nothing besides them paying what's rightfully mine for me to have any interest in them."

UK based JV Price has ordered a new 38 metre Bronto Skylift S38XDT mounted on a highly specified Volvo chassis. The new unit, which the family owned company considers will be “the ultimate window cleaning machine” will join the company’s existing Bronto S37XDT. The company says it is also looking closely at the new Bronto S50XDTJ for a number of larger – higher contracts that it hopes to win.

Life in a Tudor home: One of Exeter's most famous Tudor buildings, this tiny house was moved in the 60s to make way for the inner-city bypass, but neither time or upheaval have diluted its charm. It's not necessarily the most viable space for a business because it gets bigger as it goes up – the ground floor is tiny. The beams are original but all the plaster was renewed when they moved it. The good thing with these old timber frames is that they are rock solid – English oak from that era is now so hard. The tiny leaded window panes have also been replaced, but kept in style. Maintaining them requires a window cleaner with a bit of nerve. None of the windows are the same size.

George with his wife Olivia who believes he had several affairs: It’s all rather extraordinary as, until now, it has always been thought that George Harrison’s love story with Olivia Arias was one of complete spiritual and emotional union. George quickly asked her to move into Friar Park with him, so she relocated to England. At first, she found it lonely. She added: ‘I organise everything in my house. I know each glass that is chipped, which window needs washing; I have the ironing board in my bedroom. I find housework therapeutic.’

Councillors clash over saving plans: A series of council savings proposals that caused controversy less than 12 months ago are back on the agenda. Councillors are currently being presented with lists of potential ways to save or make money for the local authority. The savings proposals which were before the committee to be noted by members also included staffing reductions, efficiency measures for items such as printing, window cleaning and travel, property rationalisation, increasing fees and charges and reducing libraries budget by 25 per cent.

Disturbance: On Sept. 2, a business owner in the 1800 block of Glenview Road reported a male began washing the business' windows without permission and demanded payment.

Carson City: A 24-year-old window cleaner from Carson City was arrested at 1:23 a.m. Sunday in the 1000 block of North Carson Street on suspicion of misdemeanor drunken driving, failure to obey a traffic signal and driving without a license. Bail was set at $1,401.