Firefighters initially rescued a man between the 21st and 22nd floors of his 49-storey apartment building. To get back to the ground floor, rescuer and rescuee took the building’s other, functional lift — which proceeded to also get stuck. Because both lifts were now stalled, and they probably had less idiotic things to do with their time, rescue crews briefly considered busting through a brick wall to get at the poor guy and the firefighter who was trapped with him. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and an engineer simply reset both death traps lifts from the roof.
Reason stands that it’s probably safe for this guy to take every lift he encounters for the rest of his life, since the odds of getting trapped in a lift three times in your life are probably pretty minuscule. Of course, that probably applies to people who live in buildings where every single elevator isn’t broken. [Chicago Tribune via Fark]
Sam D
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:14 AMWow, being trapped three times is minuscule? I’ve been trapped four. That said, most of them haven’t been for too long (longest was 45min).
Charles
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 2:01 PMYou must ride lifts a lot.
Sam D
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 3:45 PMEvery day. I work on the 17th floor of my building (trapped once), 20th floor of my old building (trapped twice). Other time was back at uni the only time I used the lift in that particular building.
Chances are...
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:32 AM“Scientists have calculated that the chance of anything so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.” Terry Pratchett, Mort (1987)
James
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:39 AMummmm no one questions the firefighter on why he’s so stupid to use the second lift in the first place. They’re supposed to use the stairs, especially in emergency situations and although a guy trapped in a lift probably wasn’t life threatening, it still warrants the question.
I bet he’s getting his ass chewed out by the boss today………and copping a lot of flak from his workmates.
Matt L
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 12:03 PMIf ambulance pulls up to a crash site, and picks up someone involved in the crash, would they carry him back to the hospital on foot to avoid the unlikely failure or an accident from the ambulance? There’s nothing wrong with using an elevator, this was just bad luck. It doesn’t say how long he was in there for, but odds are, he was fine.
James
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 3:13 PMthat’s the dumbest analogy ever. The difference between using an ambulance to cart someone back to hospital and using a lift is that when an ambulance breaks down, they could go on foot or get another ambulance or have a wealth of options. Get stuck in a lift and your only lifeline is the Engineer who can fix it? EMT’s should know better than to put all their eggs in one basket. Stairs don’t break down, and especially using a lift when a different lift was the problem? …..retard.
NotSureIfSerious
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 4:28 PMAre you trolling or genuinely stupid?
You’re saying Lift breaks down, take stairs.
And then, Ambulance breaks down, take another ambulance..
I herped all over my derp :s
Matt L
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 9:17 AMYou’re the dumbest analogy ever… They were two completely seperate lift. The man wasn’t dying of starvation and it’s not really a risk. I am an electronics technician, and I honestly wouldn’t see the problem of using the completely seperate, isolated lift. It was just bad luck is all it was. I’m sure they would have determined if it was a power issue where the power supply was suppling both lifts, and if it was the cause, taken the stairs. I’m sure the lift would have been used in the meantime while the other one was stuck also… Have fun avoiding every risk for the rest of your life mate, I’ll leave you to it.
Benny
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:43 AMBeen stuck twice. First one was old, second one was because I was jumping up and down in the lift. Like an idiot.
tag86
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 12:04 PMWhy didn’t they just reset the first lift that the guy was stuck in?
Glenn
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 12:22 PMSeriously, the safest place is inside the elevator, and the safest way out is to wait for the mechanic.
It comes down to training, Fire departments are trained to get people out as quickly as possible, elevator mechanics are trained to get people out as safely as possible.
Best thing to do is press the Alarm button, certainly in Australia every elevator has to have an emergency intercom to the company that services it. They’ll send a mechanic to get you out. You might have to wait a while (Couple hours at most usually) but the mechanic will put the elevator into the floor level and the doors will just open so you can walk out.
Where if the Fire Department do it, they’ll cut/force the doors open, and have you climb out via a ladder, over an open lift shaft, however high it is.
Elevators are designed to be a safety cage, if you’re on the inside it’s statistically one of the safest places on the planet, if you on the outside in the shaft, it’s one of the most dangerous.
The simple statistics are that people inside an elevator car don’t get hurt, the only time someone gets hurt by an elevator is when they are trying to get out quickly…
James
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 12:32 PMexcept if the building is on fire, then you’re screwed and it’s probably the worst place to be. The Fire dept train to use stairs in emergency situations, whether it be fire, bomb threat, or whatever for good reason. You still have mobility using the stairs, in an elevator you’re a sitting duck.
Good luck finding a technician too. I’ve been stuck in our work lift for over 2 hours waiting for the technician to get here and sort it out. Glad I’m not claustrophobic
jeremy
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 12:49 PMah, stats… Here is the thing – the “massive odds” odds argument depends on a simple thing – did the two events have a common cause? If they did, the chance of getting stuck twice was really good. Occams razor tells me the two things where related :-)
Franz
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 4:32 PMGuy stuck in lift with firefighter: “So…… Have you ever fought fire with fire?”