Two window washers who had been left dangling this week from the tallest skyscraper in the U.S. — One World Trade Center, which opened earlier this month — said today that after their initial panic, they used knowledge from extensive training that allowed them to calmly stay in control of the situation.
The window washers, Juan Lizama and Juan Lopez, spoke at a news conference on Friday.
“There are a lot of ground floor jobs we might want to take for the moment,” Lopez said with a smile.
On Wednesday, a cable suddenly developed slack, flipping a scaffold that left the workers trapped and dangling 68 storeys above a New York City street.
Lizama and Lopez were working on the lower Manhattan building’s south side when one of the platform’s four cables abruptly gave way.
“You try to clear your mind and get a hold of the situation. We’ve been prepared for an instant like that,” Lopez said, emphasizing the importance of safety on the job. “Everyone was safe around us and beneath us. Once I saw the fire department inside I knew it was just a matter of time.”
The men held on to the teetering platform for two agonizing hours before firefighters used diamond cutters to saw through a double-layered window to pull them to safety.
Juan Lizama delivered his statement in Spanish, but added in English, “God bless America. I’m very happy to be here.”
A translator said Lizama called his wife from the scaffolding to tell her he was OK and would be home soon.
The dramatic rescue, coming a little more than a week after the nation’s tallest building officially opened, was followed by throngs of New Yorkers on the ground and many more around the world who were watching on live TV.
