Two construction workers narrowly avoided death after a large panel of bricks unexpectedly ripped off the side of a Montefiore Medical Center research building earlier this morning, knocking them off their scaffolding rig.

Both workers were taken to the nearby emergency room, but they sustained only minor injuries.

After being knocked from their scaffolding rig, the workers were dangling by their safety harnesses 10 stories above ground for five or six minutes, witnesses said, as fellow construction workers reeled them back to safety.

John Sullivan, chief of the fire department’s 15th battalion, said a panel of bricks came loose just above where the two workers were restoring the building’s brick façade near the top of the structure, which is about 11 stories high.

Alica Fernandez, who works at a hot dog stand directly across the street from the Montefiore building, said she heard a loud crash and then looked across the street to see two men hanging from their harnesses.

“They looked nervous,” she said.

Fernandez recognized one of them as a customer she serves coffee to every morning. After the initial shock wore off, she called 911 on her cell phone and told her daughter, who works with her at the hot dog cart, to tell people inside of Montefiore.

Fernandez was crying, she said, as her customer and the other worker struggled to get back to a nearby balcony with the help of other workers.

While the workers were being taken away, Fernandez said she gave her customer a hug. She said he was not hurt badly. Sullivan said they only sustained minor cuts and bruises from being hit by the bricks.

A fire department rescue team and the Building’s Department was assessing the damage and determining what additional safety measures, if any, should be taken.

No one was evacuated from the building as Sullivan said the damage was only to the exterior of the building.

Montefiore spokesman Steve Osborne said the building was used solely for medical research and no patients were inside.

At least 30 fire fighters were on hand, as was the Office of Emergency Management and the city’s Scaffolding Safety Team. Television and print news reporters were mingling among a crowd of a few dozen people taking in the scene and exchanging gossip.

The workers were replacing the brick facing of the building’s expansion joints, Sullivan said, adding that it probably contributed to the panel of bricks unexpectedly coming loose above the workers.

-Additional reporting by Stephen Baron