According to statistics, only half of the people who fell from the third floor survive. Almost no one survives after falling from the 10th floor. However, there is a window washer in America who fell from the roof of a 47-story New York skyscraper in 2007.
“I loved cleaning the windows well,” says Alcides Moreno. “I liked working with water, soap, and the window scraper.”
“We started from the very top of the building and went down little by little, floor by floor. I loved it,”he recalls.
On December 7, 2007, Moreno and his younger brother Edgar were to clean the windows of the 47-story Solow Tower on the Upper East Side.
They took the elevator to the top floor and out onto the roof. It was cold outside, the temperature outside was about freezing.
Alcides Moreno does not remember his fall
The tragedy happened almost immediately. When they climbed into the five-meter construction cradle, the cables that held it, according to a US Department of Labor report, "slipped off the roof attachment point."
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“The cable on the left side came off first. My brother was standing there. My brother fell out and flew to the bottom,”says Alcides Moreno.
Edgar flew 144 meters and fell into a narrow alley. By the time it reached the ground, the fall speed reached about 190 kilometers per hour.
Shortly thereafter, a cable jumped off Alcides' side, and he also flew down.
Soon firefighters and orderlies arrived at the scene. A terrifying scene appeared before them. Edgar Moreno landed on a wooden fence, which cut him in half, and it was already impossible to help him.
Alcides and Edgar Moreno fell from the roof of this skyscraper
Alcides was found in the middle of the warped metal parts of the cradle. He was in a bent position and held tightly to the control panel of the cradle. At the same time, he breathed, and, as eyewitnesses say, even tried to get to his feet, but he failed.
Firefighters say that they very carefully, "like a fragile egg", carried him to the ambulance, because they knew that any sudden movement could lead to his death.
Their high-rise rigger belts, safety cables, soap and a bucket of hot water were found on the roof.
Alcides Moreno (center) met with the firefighters who rescued him in 2007
Alcides Moreno was rushed to the nearest hospital, where he was put into a coma. He suffered injuries to the brain, spine, chest and abdomen, as well as broken ribs, an arm and both legs.
He has undergone many operations and received 12 liters of blood.
“If you want to hear about a medical miracle, then this is it,” Dr. Herbert Pardes, head of New York Presbyterian Hospital, said at a press conference at the time.
“The percentage of survivors who fell even from the fourth floor is not high,” said Dr. Glenn Asaeda of the New York City Fire Department. - Here the hand of the Almighty intervened."
Alcides Moreno came out of a coma almost three weeks later, on Christmas Day. His wife Rosario was sitting next to the hospital bed.
“There was a complete fog in my head,” he says.
Alcides Moreno, his wife Rosario and one of their sons
He does not remember falling. Did he know what happened to his brother?
“I realized that he must have died because I looked around and saw that there was only my wife and I in the room,” he says.
Brothers Edgar (left) and Alcides Moreno
An investigation into the incident determined that the roof deck was not properly maintained and the cradle cables were not properly attached to the roof.
The investigators also found that although Alcides Moreno climbed into the construction cradle without wearing the seat belts, this does not mean that he did not intend to use them. They decided that since he had left the soap and water on the roof, he was going to go back there and buckle up.
Alcides Moreno, despite falling from the roof of a skyscraper, is not afraid of heights
It is still not clear how he managed to survive. Because he was holding on tightly to the falling cradle, and it took the brunt of it? Maybe for some time the cradle somehow glided in the air? Maybe he was hit against the wall of a skyscraper, and this, in turn, slowed down the speed of his fall?
Both brothers came to the United States from Ecuador in the 1990s in search of work
“It was very hard for me to lose him,” Alcides Moreno says of his brother.
“Edgar lived with me in New Jersey, we had a lot in common. He worked with me and died working with me."
“I was depressed for about three years. It took so long for me to accept the fact of his death. It was as if I had lost a child, because he was younger than me."
Alcides Moreno received large compensation and moved with his family to Arizona. Warm weather is good for his bones, he said.
“My body is covered with scars, and because of a back injury, I can't run, just walk,” he says. “I’m not what I was before. But I thank the Lord that I can walk. It's just amazing."
Moreno is now 46 years old. He says that he would love to wash the windows of skyscrapers again, because in spite of everything, he is not afraid of heights. But he cannot return to this job for health reasons.
“When I ask about something, I often don’t finish the sentence,” he says. - There are things that I just do badly. These are the consequences of the accident."
What happened on December 7, 2007 also changed other aspects of his life.
“I used to think only of myself,” Moreno says. - I brought money to the family and thought it was enough. Then I realized how important my wife and children are to me."
His fourth child was born last year. And he just beams with happiness when it comes to his eight month old son.
“I keep asking myself: why did I survive? I have a new baby - I probably survived to raise him and tell him what happened to me,”says Alcides.
