Two window washers dangled for almost two hours from the 69th floor of One World Trade Center Wednesday before firefighters cut through glass one floor below and pulled them to safety.
As their motorized scaffold was being raised back to the roof of the 1,776-foot, 104-story tower about 12:40 p.m., it "suddenly went from horizontal to nearly vertical," Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a news briefing.
Both men had been tethered to the platform, on the building's south side, when one of four cables went slack. Fire crews on the roof lowered additional safety harnesses to the workers, along with a radio to communicate during the operation.
On the unoccupied 68th floor, firefighters used diamond saws to cut through two layers of the three-layered glass, Nigro said. They then shattered and removed the final layer of the safety glass, pulling the workers inside about 2:30 p.m.
Both were taken to Bellevue Hospital with mild hypothermia and were reported in stable condition. They were identified as Juan Lopez and Juan Lizama, of Upgrade Service Window Washing.
The company and construction crews were working to pull the scaffold into the 68th floor, which is under construction.
The cause of the malfunction is under investigation. "What we do know is that the cables are supposed to come down at the same speed, and slack developed in the cables that were on the west side," Nigro said.
Building maintenance operations were shut down as a precaution until the investigation is completed, said Pat Foye, the executive director of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the tower.
Bystanders were moved back in case glass began flying, but none fell during the operation. Office workers and construction workers streamed onto a nearby street, their necks craned upward to watch the scaffold as it is waved in the wind. Dozens of emergency vehicles lined the street.
Carol Thomas and Lisa Cogliano, who both work for an insurance company, were returning to their nearby office from a meeting.
"Oh, God, I don't want to know what he is feeling," said Thomas. "I can't imagine."
"It's horrific," said Cogliano. "Hopefully, they find a way to get him out."
The silvery skyscraper, which rose from the ashes of the Sept. 11, 2001, reopened just last week to 175 employees of the magazine publishing giant Conde Nast. About 3,000 more Conde Nast employees are expected to move in by early next year, eventually occupying 25 floors of the $3.9 billion tower, America's tallest.
Steps away from the new tower are two memorial fountains built on the footprints of the decimated twin towers, a reminder of the more than 2,700 people who died in the terrorist attack.
...culled from USATODAY
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