It’s the stuff of nightmares…
A group of students attending an Astronomy Open House in the University of Victoria’s Bob Wright building were on their way home at around 10 p.m. Wednesday night when their elevator suddenly came to a stop between the fourth and fifth floors.
The 10 people inside it then found themselves trapped in the elevator – that holds a maximum of 15 people – for two hours.
10 @uvic students have been trapped inside an elevator in the Bob Wright building since around 10 pm this evening. One of the students says they’ve been told a technician is en route from Duncan and will take approx. 1 hour to arrive #yyj @victoriabuzzes
— Brishti Basu (@brish_ti) January 30, 2020
One of the students tells Victoria Buzz that prior to breakdown, a couple of the people had been jumping up and down inside the elevator, ironically joking about it stopping between floors.
When that exact scenario played out in reality, they hit the Emergency button on the elevator but to no avail – there was no response.
That’s when one of the people trapped inside, Swapnil Daxini, decided to call Campus Security who arrived within minutes to make sure no one was in need of medical assistance and assured the students that help would be on the way.
Due to the lateness of the hour, the only technician that could be reached lived an hour away in Duncan, and reached the university by midnight.
“Some of the people had started showing signs of panicking so we began playing games and singing to create a lighter atmosphere and calm them down,” says Daxini.
Fortunately the students kept each other occupied until the technician arrived and instructed them to climb out of the elevator after the door had been pried open.
One by one, they crawled out of the elevator and onto the safety of the fifth floor before finally making their way home.
The elevator, on the other hand, will take more time to fix.
