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For nearly 30 breathtaking minutes, New Yorkers stared upward in disbelief as two men hung, trapped, on a scaffold that partially collapsed. The scare happened 70 stories above the ground in midtown.
The two workers, Danny Sandler and Tommy Florio, were noticed dangling by an apartment building doorman across the way, who saw the men motion that their phones weren't getting a signal.
Sandler, said he went through plenty of cigarettes while hanging in the sky. Florio admitted he began having those "last moment" thoughts.
"That was a long half-hour. I thought about my family, my wife, my son, everybody," Florio said.
After they were finally rescued, they thanked the FDNY and the NYPD for their help. Sandler talked about what happened after a motor on the scaffold apparently failed:
"One side just kept going down, and lucky enough, one of the emergency stops kicked in. It stopped us from going all the way down," he said.
Jeffrey Velasquez, the doorman in another building, sprung into action until firemen and police emergency service units arrived. The cops wound up removing a window and pulled the men through.
They seemed to have a good knowledge of what they were doing. And they kept their wits about them. That helped us pull the rescue off in the end," said Det. Daniel Rodriguez.
Added Deputy Fire Chief Bob Carroll: "It's always good when you can help somebody in real danger like that."
Even after the major scare, both Sandler and Florio didn't hesitate about going back to the job. "We gotta go back to work again tomorrow," they said.
Both were checked out by emergency medical services and are just fine.
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