WJLA
BETHESDA, Md. — Two masonries were rescued from a building on the National Institutes of Health campus after the scaffolding platform they were standing on partially collapsed.
Around 11 a.m. Wednesday, one of two metal arms drawing cables to the platform running alongside Building #10, reportedly snapped-off the roof. The platform consequently dropped from a horizontal to vertical position, leaving the men dangling from two ropes, some 80 feet in the air.
“It was so quick, and there was so much dust when it happened,” eyewitness Pat Parsons recalled. “We couldn’t even tell who was up there until the dust settled, and we took a second look and actually saw people swaying.” Parsons and his brother Phil had just finished servicing biomedical equipment inside Building #10. The duo was walking to their work vehicle when they heard a"pop” and then a loud “boom.”
Full story: Firefighters rescue construction workers after scaffolding collapses