Chicago FFs Rescue Six from Elevator

Nov. 16, 2018
Firefighters knocked a hole in a brick wall on the 11th floor of Chicago's fourth-tallest building to rescue six people trapped in an elevator.

Nov. 16 -- It had been about an hour since the elevator suddenly stopped with broken cables and six people inside, and all they knew was it was somewhere in between the 95th floor and the lobby of Chicago’s fourth-tallest building.

More than another hour would pass before firefighters knocked a hole into a brick wall on the 11th floor, where they had found the elevator car, and helped those trapped to safety. Fire officials reported no physical injuries among the group, which included a woman who is pregnant.

Firefighters and police officers buzzed about the lobby as the rescue effort wore on inside 875 North Michigan Avenue, formerly The John Hancock Center.

“Car one and two, they’re express as well?” a firefighter in blue clothing said into his phone about a quarter after 1 a.m. Friday, standing next to a Christmas wreath in the lobby outside the elevator bank. “They don’t stop on any of the other floors?”

Inside the bank, visitors sat on the polished floor with their backs to the wall opposite the elevators, heads on shoulders or buried in phones. Nash Mena and Luis Vazquez, of Mexico City, had been in Chicago for about a week, staying at the Loews Hotel about a mile away. They were messaging two of their friends, who were among the group trapped in the elevator.

They had all been at the Signature Room bar on the 95th floor — “It’s a beautiful view,” Vazquez said — and had taken separate elevators down.

“They were the last ones to come back,” Vazquez said.

Usually, the ride down is fast, descending dozens of floors in a matter of seconds. Sometimes, it will make human ears pop.

Seconds after his friends’ elevator took off, they heard a “bang,” Vazquez said. They messaged him on WhatsApp.

Around 1:15 a.m., building employees told people sitting by the elevators they couldn’t wait there anymore, and ushered the group into the lobby.

“This is crazy,” said a woman in a suit, shaking her head as she walked through.

Vazquez, a civil engineer, said he couldn’t believe the situation playing out in one of the most notable buildings in the country.

“This is the second most important building in Chicago? And this is the third most important city in the United States?” he said. “In the 98 floors they have no place to open any door, that is the craziest thing.”

Dissatisfied with initial help provided by building personnel, who “weren’t doing much,” friends called 911 themselves, Vazquez said.

The Chicago Fire Department was called to the building around 12:30 a.m., said Battalion Chief Patrick Maloney.

Police and fire cars and trucks filled the street along the building’s south entrance. Flashing red and blue lights reflected in the skyscraper’s glass lobby doors.

“Were you guys tied up with something else?” the firefighter in dark blue clothing asked another man in full firefighting gear.

“We were at a still [alarm fire],” said the second firefighter, holding a large orange flashlight in his left hand. “A still in the first.”

Firefighters were told the group had left the Signature Room and were somewhere in the blind shaft, a type of express elevator with no door openings in between the first and last stops, Maloney said.

“We didn’t know what their location was at that time,” Maloney told reporters after the group had been rescued.

They found the elevator near the 11th floor, he said. Cables had broken on top of the elevator, preventing an elevator-to-elevator rescue, he said.

“It was a pretty precarious situation,” Maloney said. “We had to breach a brick wall.”

Fire crews then hoisted each person through the opening, he said. One woman was pregnant. One person had a history of panic attacks. But no one was in a state of medical distress, he said.

“They were very gracious,” Maloney said. “...They were from out of town, visiting this great city.”

Around quarter to 3 a.m., word rippled through the lobby that the group would soon be reunited. Those waiting gathered outside the elevator banks, lining a pathway. When the first of the rescue crews emerged from the elevators, the crowd clapped loudly, continuing to applaud as firefighters walked though carrying sledgehammers, long metal planks, rope and other tools.

Friends realized the six who had been trapped were led out the north entrance, and walked through the building to meet them. The group hugged and laughed on the sidewalk until a private bus arrived to take them to their hotel. Those rescued needed to rest before they were ready to talk about their experience, friends said.

Fire companies throughout the city are trained at elevator rescues, including personnel familiar with blind shaft elevators he said. They do elevator rescues every day, he said --- from much smaller buildings.

Though two of the elevator’s cables were broken and it was not operational, “it’s not in an unsafe situation,” Maloney said.

Press contacts for the building could not immediately be reached.

Building security repeatedly intervened when they saw reporters talking to guests in the lobby and on the sidewalk outside. When firefighters were about to give a televised news conference on the sidewalk, a female employee told the group to get off the property, so they moved to the public street, setting up again in front of a parked Chicago police car, out of the path of traffic.

___ (c)2018 the Chicago Tribune Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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