By Megan Guza
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITTSBURGH — Two window washers spent more than an hour trapped along the seventh floor of the BNY Mellon Tower in Downtown Pittsburgh on Friday after the scaffolding they used to maneuver up and down the building lost power.
The two were ultimately rescued after the crane holding the scaffolding, which was about 47 stories atop the building, regained power and could hoist them back to the top.
“Assistant City EMS Chief Mark Pinchalk said the window washers were harnessed into the scaffold, which remained stable despite the loss of power.
“There was no real instability, it was just swaying a little bit with the light breeze,” he said.
The initial plan if power hadn’t been restored — trying to reach the workers with a firetruck ladder — was out of the question, the chief said.
Because of the angles of the octagonal building, the ladders couldn’t reach the workers’ perch from the street. Moving closer wasn’t an option because the Steel Plaza light rail station is directly below the 55-story building. Parking a several-ton truck on top could create its own issues.
First responders were working through the logistics of Plan C — removing a window and trying to bring the two men in that way — when an engineer restored power to the crane. Both the crane and scaffolding itself have mechanisms to control the raising and lowering of the platform.
“It was a little bit of a slow raise, but I think that’s the normal speed for it,” Chief Pinchalk said. “But it was a steady and slow raise all the way back up to the top.”
He said the men were stuck for 70 to 80 minutes. They were evaluated by medics when they reached top of the building. Neither was injured.
(c)2024 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at www.post-gazette.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
