DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. --
Firefighters in Daytona Beach rescued two men Tuesday morning who were dangling from ropes off the side of an 18-story building. The men were standing on a platform at the Island Crowne condominiums (see map)when the platform just started to fall.
The men were outside the 7th floor when the platform started to drop. It ran out of rope, still well above the ground, and the two men were left hanging along the side of the building.
With his legs wrapped around the end of the dangling platform, his hands clinging to a windowsill some 30 feet above the ground, one of the two contractors hung halfway to safety while firefighters worked from the inside to pull him in from a somewhat perilous position.
"He wanted out, of course, like anybody. He wanted off the rope, but, like I say, he helped us, he helped climb in," said Brad Dyess, Daytona Beach Fire-Rescue.
The men were working on air conditioning units outside the new condo building when the platform started to drop. It was a slow drop, but the men didn't have enough rope to make it all the way to the ground.
"The mechanism that's supposed to stop it just didn't work. It just kept going down. So the guys, as soon as they got to the end of their lanyard were just left sort of hanging," said contractor and witness Ross McDuffie.
Firefighters said neither of the men were panicking and didn't appear to be hurt, but after they came down they started to feel some pain. Paramedics took both men on stretches to the hospital.
Investigators were taking pictures late Tuesday morning and trying to determine why the platform fell.
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