HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — Two men working at a South Florida condominium were rescued Wednesday after the scaffold they were on partially broke, leaving them suspended by their harnesses about 70 feet above the ground, authorities said.
The workers were on the east side of the Hemispheres Condominium in Hallandale Beach when a cable that supported their scaffold broke while they were near the sixth floor, Broward County Sheriff’s Office Fire Rescue Chief Michael Kane told the Sun-Sentinel.
The scaffold, which broke about 3 p.m. EST, was left hanging at an angle, the newspaper reported.
Broken scaffold leaves two workers at Hallandale Beach condo suspended 70 feet above ground https://t.co/a93w4xolta pic.twitter.com/sjLoLTymaE
— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) December 1, 2021
A board member of the condominium’s homeowners association told WSVN that the men were doing restoration work on the building that is part of a multimillion-dollar project.
Fire rescue crews spent nearly an hour trying to decide whether they should raise a ladder truck with a bucket or lower rescuers to them from the roof, the Sun-Sentinel reported. The men were unable to move without the working scaffold, Kane told the newspaper.
A Broward County firefighter was able to rappel down from the roof to rescue one of the workers at 4:20 p.m. EST, according to WSVN. The second worker was rescued via a ladder truck 10 minutes later, the television station reported.
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