Wind leaves workers dangling

Two men working on 15th-floor windows outside the Encore were rescued after the scaffolding they were working on was tossed by wind Thursday morning.

They were performing routine window maintenance on the south side of the building at 9:15 a.m. when winds caused a cable on their equipment to break, said officials at the resort and the Clark County Fire Department.

Gusts pushed the men as far as 40 feet away from the side of the hotel-casino, Fire Department spokesman Scott Allison said.

About 15 windows were broken during the incident, and both men suffered minor cuts, he said.

The men, who were not identified, were strapped into harnesses on the scaffolding, Allison said.

One of the men was transported to the hospital, but Allison said his injuries were not life-threatening.

"Still, it was quite a ride for them," he said.

Allison said no injuries were reported to those inside the rooms along the 15th floor.

Wind gusts reached 45 mph Thursday morning at McCarran International Airport, and a wind advisory was issued for Clark County until 10 p.m., according to the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.

Meteorologist Mike Kennedy said that the strong gusts were common for late March and that conditions will calm for the weekend.

The weather service received reports of blowing dust, but the incident at the Encore was the only remarkable event related to wind, Kennedy said.

"It picked up really fast," he said, noting the average wind gust speed for the day was 35 mph.

Coby Powell, president of Red Rock Window Cleaning, which was not the company working Thursday on the Encore, said workers on high-rise properties check forecasts before going up. Typically, work is halted if wind speeds exceed 10 to 15 mph.

He said the policy, with independent harnesses for workers and the scaffolding, is there to keep people safe.

"Today would have been an obvious day not to work," he said. "It is absolutely beyond comprehension that they went up with that."

In a statement, Wynn Las Vegas and the Encore said the workers were from an unnamed subcontracted company and were performing routine maintenances to exterior windows.

Contact reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.