A window washer stuck on a broken scaffold used the time waiting for firefighters to call his second job to tell them - uh - he was going to be a little late.
Imagine you're stuck hanging 10 floors above the streets of San Diego, hundreds of people looking up as the malfunctioning window washing stage you're on sways precariously in the wind. What would you do?
Zachary Scott, Jr., called his other job to tell them he was going to be a little late.
Scott works with his dad, Zachary Sr., at A to Z Window Cleaners. He’s cleaned windows for 10 years and is apparently the very definition of professionalism. He didn't tell his boss at his other job where he was.
"I didn't want to get into details over the phone," he said.
What happened to him Thursday in downtown San Diego was a first for the window washer. The motor on the stage stopped and the platform the father and son were standing on jerked to a tilt, sending one tumbling on top of the other, but they stayed calm.
“You gotta be,” said Scott. "There’s nothing else to do about it.”
Scott’s father called his wife and then handed his son the phone so he could call his other boss.
It took crews with San Diego Fire and Rescue about 20 minutes to break a nearby window and secure the window washers with safety cables.
When firefighters broke the glass, the fragments hit Scott in the face but “It was a good sound,” the window washer said.
Once on the ground, Scott displayed the nonchalance of a man who makes his living hanging at precarious heights. He described the harness that saved his life as, “Nothing spectacular. But it works."
“It will probably be awhile before I go back to work,” Scott said. “Maybe not this building, but I’ll continue to wash buildings.”
