Firefighters raced to rescue two window washers trapped on broken scaffolding blowing in the wind on the side of a high-rise building in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle Friday morning.
First responders were called to 25 Columbus Circle around 9:47 a.m. after a 911 call about the window washers trapped on the building’s 78th floor, FDNY’s Deputy Chief Michael Trahan said during a news conference Friday.
The scaffold had broken free from the building and was only hanging on by security lines when first responders arrived, Trahan said.
Hair-raising footage from the ground captured the scaffolding billowing back and forth and spinning around in high-wind conditions.
The billowing scaffolding was smacking into the side of the building and caused a window on the 78th floor to be smashed, sending glass raining onto the street, he said.