Window washers trapped today. (Robert Miller)
Firefighters, on top of a Midtown office building, rescued two maintenance workers trapped on scaffolding hundreds of feet above the street this afternoon.
Cops closed off traffic in front of Hearst Tower, at 300 W. 57th St., as 60 FDNY rescuers feverishly — and delicately – worked on getting to two workers, stuck between the 44th and 45th floors in their busted rig.
Both trapped workers were taken inside at about 4 p.m., law enforcement sources said. The workers were checked out by fire department doctors, as soon as they were brought in safely.
The call for help came at about 3 p.m.
Firefighters and Emergency Service Unit cops knocked out windows on the 44th floor and tied safety lines to the trapped workers. So even if their scaffolding rig had completely broken off, they still would have been safe.
A law enforcement source said officials were always supremely confident that the men would be rescued.
“These guys train for this every single day,” the law enforcement source said.
Several hundred onlookers gathered at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue, looking up and taking pictures of the distinctive 46-floor tower.
“We’re kind of freaking out for the poor guys,” said Shayan Enrico, 42, a tourist from Santa Barbara, Calif. “We’re really hoping everything will be OK.”