Seaford Man Helps Rescue Workers from Manhattan Scaffold Collapse

A Seaford man helped save thee workers that were left stranded outside a 17th-floor window in Manhattan during a scaffold collapse Friday morning. 

James Coll of Seaford, and Shawn Soler of Coram, who are both detectives with the New York City Police Department's Emergency Services Unit, pulled off the dramatic rescue with help from firefighters. Det. Coll told Newsday he used a rope that was fastened to the roof of a 20-story condominium complex at 200 E. 66th St. to rappel down to the stranded workers outside a 17th-floor window. He said one of the workers told him he was losing his grip. 

“He said his hands were completely numb and it was difficult for him to hold on... He thought he was going to fall." 

Firefighters eventually were able to pull Coll and one worker through the bathroom window of a 17th-floor apartment, Newsday reported. The two other workers were pulled in to safety through the apartment's bedroom window. 

One of the rescued workers named Anmar sent Coll a grateful e-mail following the rescue, the New York Post reported. The e-mail said, 

 “I didn’t have the chance to thank you today after you rappelled down the facade of the building to save my life."

In addition to being a police detective, Coll is also an adjunct professor in the History Department at Nassau Community College in East Garden City. This past October, Coll at the Hillside Public Library in New Hyde Park.