UPDATE:
According to the maintenance guy, a representative from the elevator company arrived on-scene not long after my 5:30pm departure. Lynn was apparently rescued from the elevator car not long afterwards. The elevator dude left the building at 5:50pm according to the maintenance report. There is no indication there were any repairs made or parts replaced. The elevator was in service the day after the incident.
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Sometime after 4:30pm today I was at my desk writing some code when I began to notice a faint ringing sound in the background. It wasn’t loud enough to be a fire bell but it was intense enough for me to notice. It also seemed to be ringing at random intervals. Weird.
I ignored for several minutes when a co-worker sent me an instant message… “I think someone is trapped in the elevator”
Of course! It was the bell you ring when you’re trapped in an elevator. We both rushed to the elevator where several people had already congregated. Near the elevator bank someone was trying to talk to whoever it was through the doors. Our office manager was trying to call the security guard and elevator company. It turned out the security guard wasn’t on duty yet and elevator company wasn’t answering.
Whoever was trapped managed to yell out that she was Lynn or Lyn from the 4th floor. Then someone yelled back down to Lynn that we were having trouble getting help. I was thinking that wasn’t a smart thing to do. Don’t tell her that! Just tell her we were working on getting help to her. Anyways, we were herded away from the area, leaving just one working elevator for the entire building.
Shortly after I got back to my desk, an office-wide e-mail was sent out detailing the situation and that we were to use the remaining elevator at our own risk. Using the stairs was now the preferred method of transit. These elevators have been flaky for several months now. Sometimes they’ll go up before they’ll go down even though the arrow indicates the car should be on the way down.
Twenty minutes later, I went to the washroom and I could see no one had arrived to help this poor woman. Walking back to my desk, the office manager told a few of us that the man now in front of the elevators was Lynn’s husband. He was talking on a cell phone which I hope had his wife on the other end. He seemed quite calm.
Almost an hour later, I left work at around 5:30pm and no help had arrived yet. I threw caution to the wind because, you know, I’m a risk taker, so I took the elevator down to the ground floor. I arrived without incident and on my way out of the elevator, the security guard was on his way up.
I have no further updates on this incident but I will ask around tomorow. I need closure on this incident!