Ramiro Jara was lured by the same promise that drew his brothers and cousins to New York from the highlands of Ecuador six years ago. Opportunity. A new life. Wages he could never have earned back home. þþAnd he found a steady job, as a construction worker, learning how to nimbly navigate platforms and scaffolding that wrapped Manhattan’s soaring buildings. But early yesterday, as the morning traffic roared by below, Mr. Jara, 25, took a fatal misstep about 15 stories above the ground while working on an ornate office building at 114 Fifth Avenue near Union Square. þþMr. Jara’s harness was not attached to a safety line, a rarity, his brothers said yesterday in hushed tones. He was moving between two hanging scaffolds on the side of the building when he fell, hitting a platform one story above the ground and dying almost instantly, the police said. þþMr. Jara’s fall was labeled an accident by the authorities. A spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings, Jennifer Givner, said Mr. Jara’s employer, Town Restoration Services in Brooklyn, did not have a permit for the beams that the scaffolds were hanging from, nor did it have a licensed rigger or designated foreman on-site to monitor the work. Certificates of fitness, showing that workers had been trained for the rigs, were also missing. þþThe buildings department had not issued any violations yesterday as it continued its investigation. Reached by phone, an employee of Town Restoration Services did not comment. þþWork at 114 Fifth Avenue was stopped, and Mr. Jara’s relatives — two brothers and three cousins — struggled to absorb their loss. They and Mr. Jara shared a cramped railroad-style apartment in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. þþMr. Jara regularly sent money to his mother in Cuenca, Ecuador, said Luis Jara, a cousin. þþRamiro Jara’s brothers and cousins said they hoped Town Restoration Services would help pay to send his body to Ecuador. þþ
Source: NY Times
