Unusual Rescue

I have been to water rescues. I have been to elevator rescues. I have never been to an elevator water rescue and I bet that most of you haven't either. Well, the crew of FDNY ladder 86 have and I'm sure that they were talking about it for at least the rest of the shift.

The New York Times ran a story about the incident, it can be found here.

In a nutshell, two construction workers rode an elevator down into a flooded basement and were unable to egress the elevator or get it to return to the ground floor. The men used a cell-phone to call the fire dept, but did not know the address of the building that they were in.

After about an hour, the crews finally found the men, who by that time were standing on top of a service cart inside the elevator, with water up to their necks. The firefighters used a small ladder and placed it through the top hatch of the car, allowing  the trapped men to escape into the hoist-way. The men escaped uninjured.

It never fails to amaze me what kind of jams we can get ourselves into. Job security I guess.

Thanks for reading,
Schmoe