BFP rescues 12 people trapped in a San Juan City building elevator
By Chito Chavez
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) has rescued 12 people trapped for over one hour inside an elevator of a condominium in San Juan City on Saturday night, Jan. 28.
A BFP report stated that the 12 persons came from a basketball court of the building and were on their way home after a game when the elevator they were in malfunctioned.
Fortunately, the BFP noted that there was a cellular phone network signal inside the elevator which allowed the trapped occupants to seek assistance from their co-players who were outside the building.
BFP rescuers initially asked for the manual of the elevator which the building maintenance personnel failed to provide prompting them to force open the elevator’s door.
The responding BFP rescuers stated that overloading was possibly the cause of the elevator fiasco.
"Yung isang maintenance (building personnel) dun, nilagyan niya ng konting opening (elevator). Tapos tinutukan nila ng electric fan para pumasok yung air. Pero pagdating namin, finorcibly entry po ng spreader then bumuka yung elevator para makapasok yung mas maraming hangin (A building maintenance man made a slight opening in the elevator then put an electric fan to let air pass through. But when we arrived, we used a spreader to forcibly open the elevator to let more air in0,’’ FO2 Leo Viado of the BFP San Juan City Fire Station explained.
Viado noted that this was a case of overloading as he observed elevator was crowded with occupants.
When trapped inside the elevator, the BFP advised the occupants not to panic, seek help immediately using its emergency signal or call the emergency hotline numbers and remain calm while standing far from the elevator’s door until help arrives. (Chito A. Chavez)