Feds Eye New York Scaffold Collapse that Ended in Rescue

Federal investigators are looking into why scaffolding collapsed at a high-rise building in a suburb of New York City, leaving two workers dangling by their safety ropes until they were rescued by a firefighter.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration spokesman Edmund Fitzgerald told The New York Daily News in Saturday editions that the agency had begun investigating the accident at the 27-story senior center.

The workers became trapped 12 stories for more than an hour above a street Friday afternoon after their scaffold gave out.

Firefighter Mike Girous rappelled down the side of the building and rescued them one at a time.

The dramatic rescue was captured on live television by news helicopters hovering over the scene in Yonkers, just north of New York City.

Topics New York