“I’m going to fall!” a man repeatedly said in Spanish as he clung to the scaffolding that dangled against a building on East 50th Street in Manhattan.
The man had been struck in the head and bloodied by a heavy piece of molding while repairing the building’s masonry. Although authorities rescued him from the scaffold, he would die later at a hospital. He was 51.
Amid New York’s towering buildings, where scaffolding is so common it seemingly blends into the design, the man’s death offered a reminder of the risks faced by workers in a city under constant construction.
The man had been outside the 14-story residence at 311 East 50th St. when he was struck by a coping stone that had been removed to anchor the suspended scaffold, a Fire Department official said.
Just before noon, witnesses saw the man clinging to the structure and heard his shouts.
“He was holding on for his life,” said Rodrigo Galindo, 52, who was delivering food nearby. “I was rooting for him.”
Firefighters climbed a ladder to reach the man, who by that point appeared to have lost consciousness, Galindo said. They broke a window and pulled the man inside, as a co-worker on the scaffold stood motionless, a witness said.
Jimmy Khan, 50, an employee at a nearby deli, watched as the man was carried away on a gurney. “I had to look away,” Khan said.
The man was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where he died, the authorities said. His name was not released, pending family notification. It was unclear if he had been wearing a hard hat or harness.
A second worker on the scaffolding at the time of the incident was not injured but was taken to the hospital for observation, said Myles Miller, a spokesman for the Fire Department.
The owner of the building was granted a permit last year to repair the building’s exterior facade, a $48,000 project that focused on mending window structures and repointing, a process of fixing weathered mortar, according to an application filed with the Department of Buildings. A sign outside the building identified the construction company as VLAD Restoration.
Last year, the company and its owner, Vlad Tomczak, settled a lawsuit with six demolition workers who said they were entitled to unpaid overtime wages and claimed more than $290,000 in damages, according to court records. They settled for $129,000.
Messages left with the company were not immediately returned.
The owner of the building is listed as Kenneth Rotner of Great Bay Building Company. He could not be reached.
A woman who said she works for the building’s management company called the incident a horrible accident.
“We’ll do an investigation as to the cause of the accident and make a determination of any liability and what they did right or did wrong,” said Timothy E. Hogan, deputy commissioner of enforcement for the Department of Buildings.
Shortly after Monday’s incident, the Fire Department requested an inspection of the building, citing a “partial facade collapse,” and noted that the site conditions were endangering workers.
Eleven years ago, the building was among those damaged by a crane that snapped from its anchors and smashed into an apartment, leaving a disaster zone of twisted metal and rubble. Seven people were killed, including six construction workers.
The grim memories of that day were not far from the minds of residents on the block.
“So many people died,” said Susan Manuel, 70, who lives nearby. “It is very upsetting to people here. It makes me sad that workers are still vulnerable.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.