Window Washers Get Stuck 30+ Floors Up On Williams Tower

Two window washers were stuck on a platform at least 30 floors up on the side of downtown Tulsa's Williams Tower.

Monday, August 4th 2014, 1:03 pm

By: News On 6

Window Washers Get Stuck 30+ Floors Up On Williams Tower

Two window washers were stuck on a platform at least 30 floors up on the side of downtown Tulsa's Williams Tower. One of the men was Danny Ridge, who says he works for Budget Glass.

Ridge told News On 6 the machine on top of the building that raises and lowers the window-washing platform lost power in its lifting mechanism. He said he wasn't sure which floor the platform was on when it got stuck, but he estimated it to be the 34th."I tried to count," Ridge said. "I think we were like 33 or 34 floors or so."

Ridge calmly explained the situation from 34 floors up - on live TV - and again, when his feet were on solid ground.

"We had a little electrical problem with a scaffold system on the Williams tower today. It shut down while we were on the side of the building, oh I guess about two hours."

After more than an hour in the 90 degree weather, the men were able to raise the platform to the roof. Ridge said that despite the heat, he can keep a cool head because even up there, there's always an escape.

Ridge said it was not the first time he's been stuck up there and doesn't expect it to be the last.

"You know, a lot of times they have to let you down manually from the roof, and you kind of don't have anything to do with it, and that can be a little irritating. Yeah, I like to be in control," he said.

Turns out a single wire was unplugged inside the rig, but even after the engineers figured that out - how to fix it proved to be a foreign concept.

"It's a German rig, so a lot of the stuff is in German, so we had to find the English version," he said.

Ridge said what is crystal clear, after 33 years with the same gig - no matter who makes the rig, window washers will never get used to hanging out that high.

"I've broken a window before and climbed in, in the past, but I didn't want to do that," he said. "It just kind of comes along with the job."

The company Danny works for, Budget Glass, didn't want to issue a statement. They did give him the rest of the day off - but tomorrow they will return to Williams to finish washing the windows.