By Ryan Robinson
The Intelligencer Journal/New Era
LANCASTER, Pa. — Firefighters rescued 17 Franklin & Marshall College students who were stuck in an elevator Saturday night.
County 911 dispatchers received a call about 9:30 p.m. from an occupant who was trapped in an elevator in Campus Crossings Building 1 along College Row, 710 Harrisburg Ave., city fire Battalion Chief Jeffrey Oatman said. The initial report was that 14 people were stuck.
Responding firefighters determined the elevator was stuck between the fifth and sixth floors, he said.
They established verbal communication with the trapped occupants and tried, unsuccessfully, to get the elevator moving using the controls in the power room, Oatman said. A call to a county company for technical advice also failed to provide help.
Oatman decided the firefighters should free the students through the top of the elevator car, he said. They had been trapped for about 30 minutes.
“There was no other option,” Oatman said. “You could tell by the responses of the trapped occupants that they were getting frustrated and a little frightened.”
Power to the elevator was turned off, and a ground ladder was lowered from the sixth floor landing to the top of the stuck car, he said.
A firefighter descended to the top of the car, unbolted a hatch and removed a panel, Oatman said.
A folding ladder was placed into the car, and the occupants were freed.
There were actually 17 students in the elevator, he said. All were dressed for a formal being held on Mulberry Street.
The women took off their high heels and climbed up the ladders to be rescued, Oatman said.
Some of the men had taken off their ties and shirts because they were hot.
“They were sweating when we were getting them out,” he said.
Capacity of the elevator is 21 people, Oatman added.
A maintenance man reported recent problems with the elevator that were caused by people jumping up and down inside it, he said. The students trapped on Saturday night said they did not jump inside the elevator.
Copyright 2011 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.