The door wouldn't open, buttons wouldn't work. A call button, but nobody answered. I finally tried the fire bell, but got no response. In the end called the front desk on the cell, asked the guy if he could hear the fire bell going off around the corner. Nope. Eventually building maintenance managed to pry the door half way open.

Before building maintenance arrived, however, the elevator began to bounce up and down, and then dropped, and bounced up again. Just enough to get my full attention. I was glad to get out.

I believe I'll choose to take the stairs, next time.

I've never had anything like that happen to me. I'd have been scared also!

When I was in college, I got stuck in an elevator one evening, and was close to spending the night in there. I had just finished an intramural basketball game and was going to the computer lab. (Yes - it was that long ago.) There were probably only a few people in the building at that hour.
Nobody responded to the alarm bell. I used my keys to open up the control board because that's what they do in the movies. I shocked myself and it started going up and down repeatedly, so I put the cover back on.
After that, I pried a key into the alarm button to keep it on and settled in for the night. After about an hour, I heard a female voice calling out to me. She was able to open the outside doors, I could open the inside ones, and I jumped out. (It was stuck between floors.)
If she hadn't stayed late in the lab, I would've been there until morning.

There was an elevator in one of the housing projects where I worked, they only had older folks in the building and we were constantly dispatched there for welfare checks or 911 hang ups...(Raleigh has a 919 area code and people always are misdialing it).

I got to stand in the elevator twice while we waited for the fire department to come open the doors....nothing like a drunk old guy who pissed himself striking up a conversation with you while trapped in the elevator...the other time I was by myself...much better conversation

Many many moons ago. I worked security for a bank. I was working a 12 hour shift on a weekend. Every 2 hours you had to do a security check.

This was a large regional bank, and it had two main branches/headquarters. T he building that I was in had 6 floors for the bank and other operations.

Routine was leave the security office, ride the elevator to the 6th floor, and make the rounds on the floor, take stairwell to next and so on.

The building had two garages under the building. So, it's time for the security rounds. I get on the elevator and go to the 6th floor. As soon as the elevator stops there was a big pop, creak, squeek and bang! The next thing I know I'm falling! It was like the rides that takes you to the top, stops and drops!

Air is rushing, lights are out and I hear squilling like bad breaks on a car!

Then BAM! A sudden stop! I'm the only person in the building. The computer guy that works nights is out for lunch. I'm in the subbasment/parking garage of a large downtown building. My radio won't transmit out. And the emergency phone goes to the security office, which I'm not in!

The door is slightly cracked open, I see lights of the parking garage.

I take my hands and pry the door open slightly, then I stick my Maglite 6 D cell flashlight in-between and pry the doors open.

I was between the upper and lower parking garages! I'm covered in dust and Shakend, but OK. I went to the security office and called the main security office/dispatch and told them what happened. Spent the rest of the shift in the lounge watching cable TV.


ARman

Happened twice at my job.

First time the elevator dropped and something metal clanged and crashed on the roof. It was unnerving. Eventually the repair guys came and told me how to force apart the inner doors and turn a dial to open the outer doors. The car was about three feet below the deck.

Second time I waited about two hours. They wouldn’t let me extract myself. I wasn’t happy.

If it ever happens again they get 20 minutes before I need medical. They can pay off the fire department.

I’ve been on the elevators to the highest buildings to just about every city I have been to.
Where I live now, the tallest building is three stories and it’s an old folks home.

I can’t imagine the excitement and fear you experienced. Thank God you’re okay.

Happened to me about 20 years ago at the hotel attached to Boston Logan airport. I checked in a little after 5 PM and surprisingly got on the elevator alone. The doors close, no buttons work, phone is bolted shut, my cell phone doesn’t work, and nothing happens when I hit the call button. I’m not claustrophobic but I am impatient so in frustration I hit every button on there and I was starting to go from frustrated to mad. After what seemed like forever, the elevator goes down and and the doors open to the hotel kitchen which is in the basement. The kitchen staff tries to tell me I can’t be in there and I’m trying to tell them I’m not getting back on the bleeping elevator and show me where the stairs are.

I took the stairs back to the main level and asked for the manager. I explained what happened and then the motherfucker had the nerve to say we bolted the phone door closed because people were stealing the phone and the call button rings to maintenance which goes home at 5 PM. I asked him why it didn’t ring to the front desk since it’s staffed 24-hours a day, and he looked at me like I’m on crack. The manager decides to give me a free bellhop service so the bellhop and I take the elevator up to my floor. We open the door to my room and it hasn’t been cleaned so we ride the elevator back down and I get to have another conversation with the hapless manager.

I shared this story with s friend who has managed large hotels, managed resorts, and even been a lobbyist fir the hotel industry. She was astounded and said the industry standard is the call button always goes to an apartment that is staffed 24 hours a day such as the the front desk.

Years ago, one my boys took a baseball to the orbital, and we ended up in the ER. I forget how it came up, but we got into a conversation about elevator incidents, and the ER doctor told me she'd treated seven serious ones in which a person lost an arm or leg, or their life, in an elevator, when the elevator dropped or shifted to trap or crush them.

I said that I thought that just happened in the movies. Seven? Is that common? She said "You'd be surprised." I guess so.

Last year my hand got smashed in an elevator in Dubai. In the US, most elevators have a stop bar; if something gets in the way, the door opens. This one didn't. Somee approached the door and I put my hand against the door to pop it open to let them in. The door closed, and applied a surprisingly painful amount of force. I put both feet against the door trying to pull my hand out, and couldn't. My immediate concern was the elevator going up; probably would ahve resulted in the loss of the hand. Someone opened it from the outside.

One of the hotels I use begins on the 36th floor of the building, and the hotel goes up to something like the 60th floor, from there. The first elevator goes to the lobby, and you can feel the pressure change on the way up and down, you have to pop your ears. I suppose the drop on that might be worse, assuming the brakes didn't work.

My sister was (very) pregnant with her first child when she got stuck in an elevator due to a power outage. She eventually was able to make a 911 call and the fire department came and get her out. I think she spent a couple of hours in there. Her husband? He was a firefighter with the Portland Fire Bureau but wasn't on that particular call (he's retired now). The baby was fine, my niece is 25 now and has a 1 year old baby of her own.

I think I am done riding them after reading all this.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
Years ago, one my boys took a baseball to the orbital, and we ended up in the ER. I forget how it came up, but we got into a conversation about elevator incidents, and the ER doctor told me she'd treated seven serious ones in which a person lost an arm or leg, or their life, in an elevator, when the elevator dropped or shifted to trap or crush them.
...

This is my biggest fear. You get the doors open, you can climb up or jump down to the next floor. As you're getting into position...
My next concern is lighting. I know many here carry very nice flashlights 24/7. I'm a bit claustrophobic but only carry a cheaper keychain Olight someone here recommended. I can't imagine if the lights went out too.

I think it's a wise idea to carry a flashlight all the time. I carry a surefire light on my belt everywhere, and I use it more than a pen. Most people carry a cell these days, which also has a light.

That said, if the lights go out, there's nothing that changes in the elevator, and one isn't going to get lost in there. This one was too tall to reach the top to attempt to remove a panel. It had a single door, rather than two doors to pry apart. No phone or panel to open. Nowhere to go.

establish a pee corner 1st....

quote:

Originally posted by ThankGod4Sig:
establish a pee corner 1st....

Yes, that may be my 1st order of business.

I got stuck at work once way back in a very small one, 30-40 minutes. My first thought was "overtime baby!" Then I had visions of crawling through the hatch like in all the movies. After it got real boring, I knew I was on the ground floor so I started bouncing it up and down and got the doors to open.

Some years back we had someone stuck in one for quite a long time, empty building and a three day holiday weekend. Not sure how long, but there was quite a lawsuit over it, so it must have been good.

I got suck in one about 15 years ago. It was like all the power went out to the elevator after it had moved just a few feet. Emergency light came on for about 10 seconds and then died. This was back when I had a Nextel for work so no cell phone with a light or anything.

I used the emergency phone in the elevator. Then thinking since it only went a few feet maybe I could pry open the doors. Sure enough, I was able to open both doors. Was suck between floors so I just climbed out.

Glad I was able to get out not sure I would have liked to spend to much time in there.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
I think it's a wise idea to carry a flashlight all the time.

I don’t use my everyday carry flashlight as much now as I did when I lived in a big city, but I still use it frequently and almost as much as the knives I carry all the time. The gun that I carry and so many people obsess about? Never have yet.
I consider a flashlight to be an essential tool I should have with me all the time, and a cell phone isn’t a satisfactory substitute.

I am not an elevator mechanic, but I understand that there is a device, the Otis elevator brake, that is installed on all elevators that prevents them from free-falling, even if the suspending cables are severed.

I also understand that the most injuries happen when people try to exit when the car is trapped between floors, slip through the opening between the car and the floor slab, and fall bodily down the shaft. I suppose the car resuming motion when one is half out could occur as well, perhaps initiated by a reduction in carrying weight freeing the jam.

The upshot? If you are trapped in an elevator, you are safe where you are. Wait for help, don't try to get out.

used to love to ride the elevator when I was a kid,

local chain (now long gone) had a 2 store building near my grandparents,

we were shopping, or rather grandma was, and wanted to go upstairs,
so I jumped in the elevator and pushed the button,

maybe halfway up and the power went off,

I don't recall how long I was stuck but I tend to avoid them now,



did a remodel of a grocery store I was managing, and they moved the offices upstairs, after they added the upstairs,

to be ADA compliant, they needed an elevator, so a hydralic lift type was installed,

it was nothing but a PITA during the remodel, since the shaft had to be redone 5 times, and then they fired the first elevator guy, , and the crappy electrician,

so fast forward a month after the remodel was done, and basically all we used it for was to take crap upstairs, as in load a cart, push it in , and push the button, step out and take the stairs, the pull the cart out upstairs,


well they needed to inspect something to make sure things were connected, so I took a ride down to check the connections (buttons etc, call box and whatever)

needless to say it fukking broke with me in it,

thankfully, my cell worked inside , cause the call button nor fire button did,

got to vent on contractor for about 30 minutes, then a pause for a couple hours and vented on him again for a bit,

granted, I was out in less then 5 minutes, but after a long long period of constant fukups by that contractor, he needed a good arseripping