Philadelphia

Firefighters Rescue Workers From Broken Scaffold on Side of Penn Campus Building

The scaffold appeared to fold in the middle as it dangled from the side of a University of Pennsylvania building Monday

What to Know

  • Firefighters appeared to help two workers down from a scaffold collapse in Philadelphia's University City Monday.
  • The scaffold appeared to fold in the middle as it dangled from the side of a University of Pennsylvania building.

Firefighters rescued two workers after a scaffold broke in half on the side of a building at the University of Pennsylvania in University City Monday afternoon.

The workers were repairing the Van Pelt building along 34th Street near Walnut Street on the University of Pennsylvania's campus. Suddenly the wall one of the contractors was working on gave way and landed on the scaffold, causing it to break in half, according to a member of the scaffold company.

Video posted to the Citizen app showed firefighters responding to the scene around 1 p.m.

SkyForce10 then captured firefighters appearing to help two workers in bright shirts down a long fire truck ladder.

"It looked like he might not have been moving because he didn't want to shake the scaffolding anymore so he was staying completely still," Samantha Faublas, a witness said. "It was scary but to see his calmness kind of made me feel like they know what they're doing so they were prepared for something like this."

Both men were rescued and refused treatment for minor cuts and bruises, Philadelphia police said.

NBC10 reached out to the University of Pennsylvania Public Safety Department for comment but have not yet heard back.

OSHA officials are investigating.

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