Portland Fire & Rescue successfully rescued two individuals from different inoperable elevator cars earlier this evening in the Wells Fargo Center building in Downtown Portland. PF&R responded to reports of individual stuck in an elevator with a single truck company at just around 5 PM. As they were working with building personnel to aid is gaining access to assess the situation the elevator service company arrived, and the scene was transferred to the elevator technicians.
After an hour of working through all possible options to get the elevator car to operate and discovering that there was another elevator with an occupied car also stuck, a call was again made to the emergency dispatch center and a high angle rope rescue call was initiated. This calls in 16 rope technicians from Portland Fire along with the initial responding truck company, totaling 20 firefighters on scene. A rope system was set in place with a rescuer lowered to each inoperable elevator car and each occupant was safely removed and returned to the lobby.
In buildings as tall as the Wells Fargo Center, there are multiple elevator shafts where cars only serve a certain section of the building with a few floors of overlap in the middle of the building. Each of the elevators that were stuck are only accessed from floors 21 and higher which means there are no doors to access these shafts from the second floor through floor 20. The only doors that access these elevators are in the lobby along with floor 21 and above. This forced the technical rescue team to establish their entry point into the elevator shafts on the 21st floor. The occupant of the first car was estimated to be on or around the 3rd floor level, nearly 180’ below this location.
The tech team set up to lower a rescuer using specialized equipment and ropes to the elevator car. The overhead hatch was opened with the assistance of the elevator technician on site. (The freight elevator was located just next to the shaft of this inoperable car allowing the technician to manually operate the car and stop where needed to provide tools and assistance to the rescuer on the elevator car in the next shaft over.) The uninjured occupant was connected to the rope system and removed from the inoperable car. Using safety equipment carried down by the rescuer, the nimble occupant was able to transfer over to the freight elevator and be taken to the lobby nearly 4 ½ hours after the car inexplicably stopped descending.
The team then raised the rescuer to Floor 21 and set the rope system in the adjacent elevator shaft to perform the second rescue. The rescuer was lowered to the second inoperable car which was estimated to be only 30’ to 40’ below the entry point. The rescuer contacted the second uninjured occupant, and they were raised to the floor of entry and safely brought onto the floor away from the open door to the elevator shaft. The occupant was removed from the system, escorted to the lobby, and exited the building. This individual was stuck for a similar length of time, closing in on 5 hours.
This type of rope rescue is regularly trained for by the technical rescue team located in the downtown core and out on the east side near The Grotto. This dual location allows a response from either side of the Willamette River, which could be critical if there is an emergency that eliminates the ability to cross the bridges. These firefighters spend many hours working on being proficient in their rope rescue skills so outcomes like today occur with ease. The type of system used has two ropes that share the load with personnel operating the safety mechanisms. Each rope system has the ability to carry the load of both a rescuer and a victim so in the event there is trouble with one system, the other is in place. This redundant safety system is essential in these types of operations.
Portland Fire and Rescue acknowledged the building staff and the elevator technicians from Schindler Elevators as being instrumental in aiding them throughout the rescue. In discussions with the elevator technicians, it is unknown why either of the elevator cars stopped and if these are random or are related to one another.
