2.45pm
A window washer who hung from the side of the BNZ tower in central Auckland today, appearing to have fallen from his safety cage, was actually being photographed for an advertisement.
A Fire Service crew trained to abseil down buildings raced to the Queen St skyscraper about 12.18pm, after receiving
a call reporting someone hanging from a basket outside the 34th floor.
A crowd had gathered on the street below to see what they thought was a man clinging to a rope beneath the cage.
After several minutes he pulled himself back aboard the cage, waving happily to the onlookers below.
The fire service's specially trained, high angle rescue team that had been was sent to the scene, encountered the person they had gone to "rescue" as they reached the rooftop.
The window washer, industrial abseiler Nigel Lennox, said afterwards he had been employed by an unnamed company to make the advertisement.
He was not hanging, but was actually tied to the cage with the full complement of abseiling gear and a back-up keeping a close eye in case he got himself in trouble.
When he emerged from the cage at the top of the tower, he acknowledged he might have caused a bit of a commotion.
"For anyone else it looks a bit out of it but it is just a normal abseil."
Auckland city senior station officer Chris Scott said when Mr Lennox saw the firefighters arriving on the roof he had been surprised and apologetic.
If people were planning to do something unusual such as this, they should advise the Fire Service beforehand, and often did, Mr Scott said.
He was not annoyed at having been called out, and said that had the incident been a genuine emergency, two firefighters would have abseiled over the side of the building to secure the person in trouble and get him back into the motorised basket.
- NZPA and HERALD STAFF
