DISABLED MAN STUCK IN ELEVATOR RESCUED BY HUMBOLDT BAY FIRE

EUREKA, CA- A disabled man is trapped inside an elevator today.
Humboldt Bay Fire responded to the call and had to lift him to safety. It took fire fighters about 20 minutes to lift the victim out of the elevator and retrieve his wheel chair.
 
The man trapped was David Ross and he is happy to be free. He was tapped inside this elevator at the C.W. Long Building in Old Town Eureka.
 
Battalion Chief Chris Jelinek reported to the scene and told us, "The man in the elevator was uninjured, very calm.”
 
Fire fighters received the 911 call around 12:30 this afternoon. Jelinek added, “It was just a matter of taking a little bit of time to move the elevator and get him out."
 
When fire fighters arrived on the scene they determined that the elevator stopped because it was malfunctioning. Jelinek said, "the only way we were able to remove the patient in a timely manner we had to drift the elevator from where it was. Just above the second floor. And remove the man from the elevator."
 
Ross was then carried down the stairs by fire fighters, but he was not alone in the elevator. His friend Michael Bien was with him when it stopped. Bien added, "The elevator just stopped. And didn't go up or down. So I finally just pried the door open to try and assess the situation."
 
We asked Bien if he was nervous, he said, "We both were a little bit at times. Mainly because we just didn't know what was going on."
 
Fire fighters drifted the elevator down by releasing pressure from the hydraulic cylinder, allowing the elevator to move down slowly. Both people were in good spirits and not injured.