Workers rescued after scaffold gets stuck at 62nd floor of Midtown high-rise

MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- Two workers were rescued Tuesday afternoon after their scaffold stalled outside a Midtown high-rise building.

The workers, who were replacing glass panels, became stuck outside the 62nd floor of 1717 Broadway, between West 54th and 55th streets, when the scaffolding stopped working around 1:20 p.m.

Eyewitness News captured the rescue on camera. Watch the video here:

Firefighters said the scaffold was stabilized with fire department ropes, but since mechanics couldn't get the scaffolding moving again, the FDNY had to cut through a pane of glass in order bring the workers inside.

No injuries were reported, and the entire incident lasted just over an hour.

Tom Dembinski, the workers' supervisor at Permasteelisa Group, said the pair was done for the day and on their way back up to the roof when the scaffolding stalled.

"A malfunction on the scaffold," he said. "The scaffold shut down, and they were stuck out there...it's the nature of the beast."

The operator of the scaffold, however, criticized the FDNY response and called firefighters' actions unnecessary.

"There was no need for the fire department at all," Louis Merced said. "This was overdone."

He said the FDNY acted too quickly and that he already had the scaffold active again after a breaker problem caused the stall.

"They were not in danger," he said. "It's not like the scaffold was falling. Nothing happened. There was no problem where they were in danger."

There is no word on whether the conditions played any role in the malfunction.