Window Washers Get Stuck on Platform for Hours 17 Floors Up

Originally posted at 2:28 p.m. Oct. 1, 2014. Edited with new details.

A pair of window washers were stuck for about three hours today when their platform malfunctioned near the 17th floor of an Irvine high-rise, but they were eventually lifted safely back to the building’s roof.

The call for help came at 9:30 a.m. at the 19-story office building at 4 Park Plaza, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi said. At about noon, firefighters began raising the platform toward the roof using a mechanical device outfitted with two engines.

The platform’s left-side cable failed, so the window wasters took turns hand-cranking themselves up the side of the building, Concialdi said. The process moved in inches and took about an hour.

The workers were safely on the roof just before 1 p.m., according to Mike Lyster, spokesman for The Irvine Co., which owns the building.

“The pizza (the company ordered) just arrived, so what good timing,” Lyster said.

The window washers work for Newport Window Maintenance, which services the building for The Irvine Co. about three times a year, Concialdi said.

The workers were about 225 feet off the ground, Concialdi said. The building is 260 feet high, Lyster said.

The workers were going from top to bottom cleaning the windows, Lyster said. It takes about four days to clean the windows on a building that size, he said.

--City News Service

PHOTO Courtesy Orange County Fire Authority.