A window washer rescued from a dangling scaffold nearly 70 stories above the ground “would go back to work at the World Trade Center tomorrow” if asked.
Juan Lizama told reporters Friday that after 24 years cleaning windows he has no compunctions about returning to the job. Juan Lopez, rescued with Lizama on Wednesday, said that he too would keep washing windows, but joked that “there’s a lot of ground floor jobs now, you know … there’s other uses for us, and I’ll probably do that.”
Lopez and Lizama recounted at a press conference in their union headquarters what they felt and thought when a cable holding one side of the rig suddenly slacked to a 75-degree angle as they were 700 feet off the ground. Lopez, a 33-year-old Peruvian native who spoke with a slight Bronx accent, said “at the beginning it was panic and thinking about survival, instincts … after that you try to clear your mind and get a hold of the situation.” He said after the first few seconds “it’s hard to say that I was calm,” but “training brings some calm … I knew it was just a matter of time.” Asked about whether he looked down, the five-year veteran washer said of course he did – “I’m used to the view.”
The two men were rescued by a team from the New York fire department, which cut through a 68th floor window with a diamond saw.
Lizama, a quiet 41-year-old from El Salvador, was visibly nervous before the cameras but could not contain his enthusiasm once he began talking, spilling English into Spanish. “I’m just happy I made it home to my family, thank you, gracias a todo el mundo, I’m very happy to be in the United States, God bless America!”
He said that he and Lopez had checked and tethered everything on the scaffold before they began ascending from the 43rd floor that day. He credited the union’s nearly 800 hours of training and “refresher” courses with saving their lives. “When I saw that Juan’s side tilted, I told him we’re well prepared and we’re going to be fine.”
Knowing he and Lopez were secure, they focused on making ground contact with their two radios. “I don’t remember having much of a conversation, honestly, not much,” Lopez said. He also used his cellphone to call his wife in New Jersey, telling her that no matter what she saw on the news he was safe and neither she nor his son should worry. Besides safety, Lizama said, it was just a matter of patience.
Asked what he did or felt when rescuers pulled him inside the tower, Lizama said he had no idea what he felt, he was just glad to be inside. Lopez said he could only think “thank God”. They thanked the first responders profusely, and Lopez said he was particularly grateful to be working with Lizama that day, whom he called “one of the best”.
Lopez also said that he tried the emergency brakes but the stop failed – the only hint of what went wrong on the scaffold. Union officials were extremely tight-lipped, refusing even to entertain questions about the investigation into what they called an “equipment malfunction”. A spokesman for the union, 32BJ SEIU, instead called the incident “a reminder” that New York’s strict rules about scaffolding and safety “cost a little money but they save lives”.
