Window washers rescued from North Dallas high-rise

DALLAS - Dallas Fire-Rescue crews rescued two window washers who were stuck alongside a high-rise in North Dallas Wednesday afternoon.

Crews received the initial call about window washers stuck near the top of the Prosperity Bank on LBJ Freeway around 2 p.m. It's not clear what caused a side of the scaffolding to become loose.

The dramatic rescue happened 15 stories high. Firefighter Jonathan Formby was tapped to carry out the mission, and he was ready.

"They lowered me down to the victim. I attached to the victim,” he recalled. “He was completely on me, and we lowered from the top all the way down."

Initially two window washers were in distress after some mishap with their equipment.  Firefighters say the men's co-workers managed to help the first one to safety. The second window washer wound up dangling in the air.

"He was hanging from his harness, so he was hanging just from that,” Formby said. "Whenever you're hanging for a long time, you start to get acid build-up — not a very good thing. So we were sending down a rope just to get some pressure off of his harness for him."

The entire rescue process, a harrowing, tedious and rare occurrence, went smoothly.

"I think he was a little shaken,” Formby said. “He wasn't really scared. He didn't really talk very much. I told him we're going down. He said, ‘okay!’"

"This is not an incident we see on a regular basis,” said firefighter Jason Evans. “But on that note, this is why we train for things like this every day."

The window washers were evaluated by a medical team but did not appear to have any injuries.