Anaheim chief helps save dangling workers

Three window-washers left hanging off the side of an Anaheim office building when their scaffold broke loose were rescued by police and firefighters early Monday.

Among the officers who pulled two of them to safety was Anaheim Police Chief John Welter.

“I looked out the window and saw these guys dangling from the building. I went out to help some of my officers who had already responded,” said Welter, who is known to cruise the city on a police motorcycle handing out traffic tickets. “Those guys are studs. They did all the heavy lifting. All I did was help pull the [workers] onto the roof.”

The three men were working on the 10th floor of the 11-story Bank of America building at 300 S. Harbor Blvd. when one side of their scaffold broke from an anchor on the roof. Two men clung to the scaffold while the third swayed in midair 125 feet above ground, secured by his harness.

Welter saw the emergency unfold from police headquarters across the street at 6:30 a.m. as he was getting ready to go on traffic patrol.

He and the other officers went to the building’s roof and pulled up the two men who had been on the scaffold.

Firefighters used a ladder with a bucket at the end that was barely tall enough to rescue the man hanging by his harness, said Fire Department spokesman Jeff Lutz.

The names of the rescued men were not available. One suffered cuts on his head, and his co-worker complained of neck and back pain, Lutz said. The man rescued by firefighters was not injured but was taken to the hospital as a precaution, he said.

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hgreza@latimes.com