MILWAUKEE — Two workers were stuck on broken scaffolding hanging above the Milwaukee County Courthouse on Thursday afternoon, but are now safe thanks to rescue efforts from the Milwaukee Fire Department and others on the scene.
The scaffolding broke between 2:30 and 2:45 p.m. CST on October 10th as the right side of the scaffolding tilted downward at roughly a 45-degree angle, suspended 135 ft. above the ground. Fire officials used a P.A. system to communicate with the workers, who were ultimately uninjured in this incident.
“These folks that are working on this site are highly skilled,” Chief Lipski said. “While this is undoubtedly extremely scary and hazardous if they weren’t wearing their proper equipment, which they were, they were able to, with the help of their coworkers, use an adjacent scaffolding.”
The workers shimmied their way across a tight area with the help of their teammates, authorities say.
Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski confirmed that all scaffolding was secured and the tilted scaffolding was secured twice over to ensure public safety. He said the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office will handle securing the area of the courthouse just below the dangling scaffolding.
620 WTMJ has reached out to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office to confirm further details and is awaiting a response.
This is a breaking news story. An update and/or follow-up may be issued as further details are revealed.
