It was also distinctly different from the case of Joshua Hanson, a Wisconsin bar owner who survived another harrowing fall. He crashed through a window on the 17th floor of a Minneapolis hotel in January after what a police spokeswoman described to The St. Paul Pioneer Press as a little “tomfoolery and a little too much to drink.” He broke a leg and his lungs collapsed, but he left the hospital after seven days.

“I’m doing fine,” he said this week.

Just as Mr. Hanson’s friends marveled at his recovery, experienced rescuers were still marveling on Tuesday at Alcides Moreno’s survival.

“It is nothing short of a miracle  nothing short of a miracle  to fall from that height and still be, well, to still be alive,” said Deputy Chief Thomas E. McKavanagh of Division 3, an operational commander on the scene after the accident and a 28-year veteran of the Fire Department.

Alcides Moreno was in critical condition at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday, and hospital officials have refused to discuss details of his condition.

Relatives said over the weekend that Mr. Moreno’s injuries included collapsed lungs, damaged kidneys and bone fractures. His wife, Rosario, said at her home that his face looked good, considering what happened. He has a broken nose and a gash above one eye, she said, adding, “We’re taking it day by day.”

The doctors have not been able to explain how her husband managed to survive because, Ms. Moreno said, they had never treated such a case. “They’ve never dealt with anything like this,” she said. “They’re learning from it.” She said they had not given her a prognosis.

The brothers were employed by City Wide Window Cleaning and were working at the Solow Tower, at 265 East 66th Street, at Second Avenue, when the scaffold gave way. Vincente Bustamante, 35, a good friend of both Moreno brothers and himself a window washer for 12 years, said he believed that Alcides Moreno survived because he followed the training window washers receive when they learn their job.