CHICAGO — A Chicago firefighter ended up trapped himself while trying to rescue a man stuck in an elevator Monday.
Firefighters were called when an elevator stalled between the 21st and 22nd floors, according to the Chicago Tribune.
A firefighter took a second elevator to that level and helped the man, who had been stuck for three hours, out of the first elevator and into the second through the ceiling hatch.
When that elevator stalled, other firefighters considered breaking through a brick wall to enter the elevator shaft and using ropes to bring both men to safety.
But an elevator engineer reset the switch from the roof so that the cars could be operated manually, and both made it to the ground floor safely after about two hours in the car.
“We were working late at night in a dark elevator shaft — it was dangerous work,” fire spokesman Kevin McGregor told the Chicago Tribune.
He added that the elevators appeared to suffer an electrical problem.