Firefighters rescued four workers stuck in an elevator underground at a utility plant in Brooklyn Wednesday morning, officials say.
A Con Edison employee and three contractors were trapped in an elevator about 220 feet below ground at the Con Edison plant on Hudson Avenue just after 7:30 a.m., fire officials said.
The workers had been on their way to maintenance work on gas facilities below ground. In an intense rescue operation taking over three hours, a firefighter tied to a harness went down to bring each worker out one by one, said FDNY Lt. Sean Parker.
“We set up a rope that’s used like an elevator. It goes over a pulley and it goes down into the shaft, and those guys outside us in the system grab the rope and pull it up,” he said.
One of the trapped workers said he was lucky to be alive after being stuck in the hot elevator for three hours.
“I think anyone who is in a confined space like that for a period of time, they would be in a little bit of a nervous state, but his medical condition was stable and we were able to transfer them to a local medical center,” said Dr. Glenn Asaeda, who did a preliminary evaluation of the workers on site before they were turned over to EMS.
Firefighters say it’s unusual to have to go down 200 feet, but they train for rescues that deep.
“It happens often enough that we are comfortable with what we’re doing,” said Parker.
Minor injuries have been reported from the jolt of the elevator car stopping, but nothing more serious beyond that, fire officials say.
A Con Edison spokesman said in a statement, “Members of the FDNY showed once again today why they are the best at what they do… We are grateful for their efforts and the assistance of all emergency responders who participated in this rescue.”
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