Firefighters Try to Rescue Window Washers at One World Trade Center

 

Two workers are stuck on scaffolding at One World Trade Center, about 69 stories above street level. credit: Zachary Prensky

Zachary Prensky

New York City police and firefighters were trying to rescue two window washers stuck on a scaffolding at the 69th floor of One World Trade Center on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
The workers were tethered to the scaffolding and hadn’t been injured as firefighters tried to find a way to bring them down, a Fire Department of New York spokesman said. The 911 call came in at 12:42 p.m.
“They are in a difficult spot,” a fire department spokesman said. “They are feeling the effects of hanging in there.”
A law-enforcement official said the the New York Police Department’s Emergency Services Unit was in the building and trying to remove a window to reach the washers.
A Fire Department official said a cable appears to have snapped while the motorized scaffolding was returning to the top of One World Trade Center.
The fire official said the scaffolding company was on the scene and doesn’t believe the apparatus was in danger of falling.