26.05.2007

Two men learn a lesson

Two terrified house painters were stranded for two hours 12 metres up in a boom lift, as their machine teetered on the point of balance, threatening to tip over at any moment as 20 police, firefighters and ambulance crew worked to bring them down.

The incident occured in a suburb of Sydney Ausdtralia, where the two men were working on a two storey appartment block.

Ambulance and police officers climbed onto the lift in an attempt to stabilise it while they worked to bring the men down. A passerby was also press-ganged into adding his weight to the base of the machine where he stayed sprawled across it for nearly an hour.

Meanwhile firemen leaning out of windows on the top floor of the apartment block, frantically tried to secure the lift with ropes.

The painters from Summit Coatings of Avalon, had begun painting the outside of the building on Monday, when they realised that their lift was on the point of tipping over, .

A spokesman for Access Equipment Hire, which supplied the lift, said that it had a maximum lift capacity of 120kgs and that the two men were clearly a good deal more than that, even before the paint and equipment was taken into consideration.

"I can't believe they both fitted in there,'' he said, "They'll never be hiring equipment from us again, that's for sure.''

A resident of the apartments, Miyuki Habara, watched the drama unfold from her top floor apartment. "I heard some shouting but didn't pay much attention,'' she said. "Then I realised they were in trouble".

"The cherry picker was wobbling back and forth and they were shouting to a third worker below for help. He said he'd call the police but they yelled there was no time and he jumped on the base to stop the whole thing from falling over.''

A police officer on the balcony tried to keep the men calm by talking to them throughout their ordeal.

One painter remained standing, chain-smoking nervously while his co-worker crouched stiffly below him.

The first attempt to rescue the men with a fire ladder failed when its fully extended height proved to be 1.5 metres lower than the basket of the lift. The ladder truck was repositioned for a second attempt which was successful.

Richard Meaney of Summit Coatings said "It's just one of those things,' we’ve never had a problem before and we've done work on this building before. The main thing is that the blokes are safe.''