Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

public safety:

Stranded CityCenter window washers all safely on solid footing

High Rescue

Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun

A firefighter lowers a stranded window washer down the side of Vdara on Wednesday, July 25, 2012.

Updated Wednesday, July 25, 2012 | 5:37 p.m.

High Rescue at Vdara

A view of MGM's CityCenter taken from a helicopter Monday, May 21, 2012. Vdara is at left, and Aria is at right. Launch slideshow »

Window washer rescue

Live coverage from KSNV on the rescue of window washers trapped at Vdara.

The four window washers who were trapped outside the 35th floor of the Vdara Hotel at CityCenter are safely on solid ground after their rescue by Clark County and Las Vegas firefighters.

The rescues, once a plan was devised, took just over an hour and required the teamwork of more than two dozen firefighters, including Las Vegas Fire and Rescue's technical rescue team.

Emergency workers responded shortly before noon Wednesday and developed a high-angle rescue plan, county spokesman Stacey Welling said. It’s unclear how the window washers became trapped.

To reach the window washers, a member of the rescue team was lowered from the top of the hotel to the window washers' basket, where one worker at a time was placed in a harness and lowered along with the firefighter to the roof of a third-floor landing area, Welling said.

At 1:48 p.m., the rescue team started lowering the first window washer, Welling said. The final worker was lowered about 2:50 p.m. and safely reached solid footing several minutes later.

Hotel safety officials will review the incident as part of MGM Resorts’ standard policy, company spokeswoman Yvette Monet said.

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