WASHINGTON – Two workers were rescued from the side of a building at the National Institutes of Health Wednesday morning after their movable platform collapsed.
The men were repairing bricks on the side of Building No. 10 when the platform, similar to those used by window washers, suddenly dropped out from under them. The men were caught by their safety harnesses and left dangling about 75 feet off the ground.
“It’s actually hanging from one cable. One cable gave way, causing it to collapse,” says NIH Fire Chief Jonathan Mattingly.
A ladder truck was used to reach the crew.
“If they were a couple feet higher, it would have been much more difficult to get to,” Mattingly says.
Investigators will review why the cable failed.
U/D NIH Bldg 10 – technical rescue – window washers scaffold partial collapses about 75' above ground pic.twitter.com/kbLQzh0TID
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) June 4, 2014
WTOP’s Andrew Mollenbeck contributed to this report from Bethesda. Follow @WTOP on Twitter and on Facebook.
