Some excitement this morning; the elevator at my office failed – while I was in it.
I got in, pressed three, the doors closed and the elevator got to about the second floor before there was a kind of ‘thump’, the elevator dropped a few inches, and then began to bounce fairly violently.
I pulled the emergency stop and the bouncing stopped, but the elevator was between floors and the doors wouldn’t open.
Eventually, by using the emergency stop to “turn it off and on again” a few times, the elevator bled down and let me out on the first floor.
I get to work between 0600 and 0630, or about two hours before other folks arrive, so it would have been a fairly long wait for someone to notice the elevator alarm going off – and I wasn’t relishing that idea. But I got out, secured the power to the elevator, and put up out of order signs.
It’s an older hydraulic elevator, so I’m guessing there’s a valve in there somewhere that’s failed… But the elevator guy can figure it out when he gets here.
Listening to "Who's Behind the Door" by Zebra