3 Miami Workers Stranded When Scaffolding Collapses
MIAMI (CBS4)-Three workers at a high-rise Miami condominium had some scary moments Friday morning when the scaffolding they were standing on malfunctioned.
City of Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Iggy Carroll said the men were on the high-rise at 900 Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami when they were rescued by the Miami Fire Department.
The men were on the scaffolding trying to take down a banner off the building when one of the men lost his footing and somehow ended up dangling from his harness 120 feet off the ground, CBS4's Silva Harapetian said.
Carroll said his co-workers came to his rescue.
"One of them, the worker who we brought down last, tried to climb up his rope to pull that guy up," he said. "He couldn't get up and he was just hanging there so he tried to pull him up. That didn't work."
Chopper4 flew over the scene as one of the men was finally able to get over to another scaffold and was taken down by rescuers.
"So while the fire department was in route, this other scaffolding that was on the ground…they figured they would swing him over to the guys and they were able to grab him and they brought him down to the paramedics," Carroll said.
But for the fire fighter who descended down to the trapped man, it was quite an experience. It was his first rescue.
"I was like relax, I explained to him what I was going to do that I was going to hook him to myself and then pull him up to me," said firefighter Kian Attai. "And then he released himself from the building."
"It was kind of surreal, you know, just the spur of the moment, adrenaline kicking," said Attai. "It finally kind of hit me after when I looked up at how high it was."
No one was injured as a result of the scaffolding collapse.
