Two men who were suspended on a malfunctioning scaffold 90 feet above the ground for more than five hours shimmied down to safety with the help of firefighters Thursday night.
The men, both 19 years old, had spent most of Thursday pressure washing the outside of a 12-story building at 257 E. 200 South, Salt Lake Fire spokesman Scott Freitag said. About 5 p.m., they called it a day and began their descent on the motorized platform of the scaffolding.
When they were near the eighth floor, they paused to level out the platform, but when they resumed, the right motor froze.
For more than two hours, the two men above the ground and a third who was on the ground tried to fix the problem themselves. Then they apparently called the company the scaffold was rented from and were told to call firefighters, Freitag said.
About 8:30 p.m. firefighters began the rescue effort. From the building's roof, two firefighters rappelled down 50 feet to the men on the platform, attached their ropes to harnesses the men were wearing and lowered them to the ground, Freitag said.