Two brothers who plunged 47 stories from a Manhattan building when their window-washing platform collapsed — killing one and gravely injuring the other — knew their scaffold had a mechanical problem before they ascended the tower, but were assured by a boss that it had been fixed, a family member said yesterday.
The family member, José Cumbicos, a brother-in-law, said that the brothers, Edgar and Alcides Moreno, had spoken of their concern about the scaffold in a telephone conversation with him Friday at 8:30 a.m., less than two hours before they went to work at the Solow Tower, at 265 East 66th Street, at Second Avenue.
Mr. Cumbicos, himself a window washer who had worked with Alcides Moreno for years, recalled that the brothers had told him of at least three problems with the Solow Tower scaffold this year, including one that had put it out of commission in the summer. He said he had urged them not to go to work on Friday.
“I said, ‘It’s cold, don’t go to work, don’t take chances with that scaffolding,’” Mr. Cumbicos said.
But Alcides, with whom he was conversing in Spanish, “told me their boss had called them and said, ‘The scaffolding was fixed, come to work.’ So they both left.”
Mr. Cumbicos, in an interview at his home in East Newark, said that he did not know the full name of the boss, but that Alcides referred to him as “Tony,” apparently trusted him and seemed to be reassured about the safety of the scaffold, which he said had been used without incident earlier in the week.
The Morenos traveled to the city from their home in Linden, N.J., and arrived at Solow Tower about 10 a.m. They took an elevator to the roof of the skyscraper, and within minutes both had plunged over the parapet. Edgar was cut in half by a fence in an alleyway below, and Alcides suffered extensive critical injuries.
The brothers were employed by City Wide Window Cleaning of Jamaica, Queens. Messages left with an answering service were not returned last night, and efforts to reach the owner, Michael Hoszowski, for comment were not successful. The building’s owner, Solow Management Corporation, issued a statement on Friday expressing sympathy for the victims and their families and pledging cooperation with investigators.
The disclosures by Mr. Cumbicos, who is married to Edilma Moreno, a sister of the brothers, shed new light on an accident that is under investigation by city, state and federal agencies.
Investigators confirmed yesterday that neither worker was wearing a harness, as required on all window-washing jobs, but said it was unclear if this was negligence or if the men had been dragged over the edge of the roof by whipsawing cables before they had a chance to put on their harnesses.
New details about the victims’ background emerged from family members and investigators as Alcides Moreno, 37, continued his struggle for life at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital in Manhattan while relatives and friends kept a vigil and mourned Edgar Moreno.
Family members also corrected some information about the brothers that had been misrepresented on Friday by several neighbors in Linden, where the Moreno brothers shared a home. They said it was Alcides, not Edgar, who is married to Rosario Moreno and is the father of three children: two sons, aged 14 and 7, and a 10-year-old daughter, all of whom live in the Linden house. Edgar, 30, was married to a woman who lives in Ecuador.
José Castillo, a cousin of the Moreno brothers, said that Alcides immigrated to the United States 12 years ago and that Edgar came about a decade ago. Both had worked at the dangerous job of window washing in high-rise buildings since their arrivals.
“I know it was a risky job,” Mr. Castillo said, “but they took every precaution when they worked.” He added, “Something was wrong with the scaffold.”
That was a judgment that some investigators appeared to confirm on Friday. The brothers worked on what is known as a swing scaffold, a built-in feature of the tower. It is anchored by cables to a circular rooftop track that lets workers move the platform so window washers can reach any point on the facade. The scaffold cables are motorized, allowing the washers to move up and down at the press of a button. At the roof, the cables are strung through arms that reach out over the parapet and hold the scaffold in place within reach of the windows.
One investigator said on Friday that new cables had been installed on the scaffold, but it was unclear who did the work, when it was done and whether it was satisfactorily completed. Mr. Cumbicos said it was highly unusual for the Moreno brothers to begin work without hooking themselves up to safety harnesses, which are nylon belts that loop around the legs and arms and are connected to cables anchored on the roof.
One scenario for the accident, an investigator said, was that the scaffold cable had not been securely anchored to the track on the roof, and that when the men stepped on the scaffold, they and the platform plunged down.
Another scenario, an investigator said, was that the cables had come loose from the track in some way, then whipsawed around and dragged the men over the parapet before they had a chance to hook up their safety harnesses.
In an alley beside the tower yesterday morning, the crumpled remnants of the 16-foot aluminum scaffold were visible, along with chunks of wood and metal that appeared to be debris left by the accident. In the afternoon, the debris was moved into an unoccupied retail space on the ground floor.
The accident — the first involving the death of a window washer in the city since May 2005 — is under investigation by the city’s Department of Buildings; the state’s Department of Labor, which inspects and regulates window-washing scaffolds; and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which examines workplace fatalities.
Kate Lindquist, a spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings, confirmed that an investigation was under way, but said it was too soon to discuss details. She acknowledged that City Wide Window Cleaning would be part of the inquiry, along with Solow Management.
Leo Rosales, director of communications for the Department of Labor, confirmed that his agency was investigating. He said his department inspected 600 window-cleaning scaffolds a year in New York City, and noted that the equipment at Solow Tower had been inspected in June. Inspectors, he said, found cables, harnesses, controls and other safety equipment to be working properly.
An OSHA spokesman could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Mr. Castillo and another brother-in-law, Juvan Rivas, said doctors had told the family of the injuries Alcides Moreno suffered, including blood clots in the brain, collapsed lungs, damaged kidneys, numerous bone fractures and extensive internal injuries. He underwent surgery on Friday night, Mr. Castillo said, and afterward, the doctors spoke to the family.
“The only sign that he’s alive is that he’s breathing,” Mr. Castillo said.
Mr. Rivas added: “We’re praying that he makes it through this. It’s hard to understand why this happened. God only knows why.”
Mr. Rivas said the brothers had come to America for a better life, and had tasted some success. They each owned a car, and for some years had shared a brick and wood-frame ranch house at 1016 Clinton Street in Linden, a working-class community in Union County. The home, bought about six years ago, is worth about $350,000 today, neighbors said. Alcides Moreno’s children attended parochial schools, and played baseball and soccer. The family often held barbecues in the summer, and swam in a backyard pool.
Mr. Rivas said both brothers were American citizens, but Jorge Alvarez, who identified himself as a longtime friend of the brothers, said in an e-mail message from Ecuador that Alcides was a citizen and Edgar was a legal resident who had applied for citizenship.
Felix Chininin, 47, a family friend who had known the brothers from their days together in Ecuador, said the Morenos had come from the town of Macará in southern Ecuador. “Edgar was very hard-working, very dedicated to his family,” Mr. Chininin said outside the Linden home. “He set an example for all of us.” Edgar often sent money home to his wife, and had planned to bring her to this country soon.
Now, he said, Ecuadoreans in the New York area are rallying around the family and plans are being made to raise money to assist the family and to send Edgar’s body back to Ecuador.
If the brothers were ever worried about the dangers of their job, they never mentioned it, Mr. Rivas said. Instead, they spoke of the wondrous vistas of New York City from the roof of the 46-story tower where they worked. “They talked about the views, and they took pictures from up there,” Mr. Rivas said.
No comments:
Post a Comment