The fire department says neither cleaner was hurt, but they had to be lowered by rope
Two window cleaners were stuck halfway up the angular Deloitte building at the corner of West Georgia and Homer streets in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Thursday afternoon.
Matthew Trudeau, a spokesman for Vancouver Fire and Rescue, said that the cleaners were stuck on a platform because of a problem with the machinery.
Neither cleaner was injured.
Trudeau said that he got the call at 1:45 p.m. At first, it was said that the motor on the scaffolding equipment wouldn’t work, so the cleaners wouldn’t be able to raise or lower themselves. He said that the motor didn’t look like it was hurt.
Trudeau said that workers rappelled down to the cleaners and then used ropes to go down one floor. From there, they could walk into the building’s interior through an open space outside.
He said that the angular faces of the oddly shaped skyscraper, which kind of looks like a Rubik’s cube with its sides turned horizontally, made the work more complicated.
“It’s a little harder to get from one floor to the next,” Trudeau said. “Definitely unique exterior faces.”
He said it was a dangerous move with a lot of technical details. In August 2022, a window cleaner got stuck on the side of the Nordstrom building and had to be rescued by fire crews.
He said that crews expected to be at the scene for a bit longer to make sure that the cleaners’ equipment was no longer dangerous.
He said it took about an hour to save them.
In a statement, a worker safety agency called WorkSafeBC said, “We are aware of the incident and are currently looking into it.”
