Getting trapped in an elevator is unfortunate enough, but the situation was even scarier for a group of people at the World Trade Center on Tuesday when water began rushing into the elevator in which they were trapped.
“There is water rushing in the elevators on the 82nd floor of the WTC,” Emily Signer, a writer for Mic, wrote on Twitter. “You can hear it. Some people are in the elevators. This is terrifying.”
There is water rushing in the elevators on the 82nd floor of the WTC. You can hear it. Some people are in the elevators. This is terrifying pic.twitter.com/AmttytC06k
— Emily C. Singer (@CahnEmily) September 26, 2017
Alan Haburchak, director of Studio and Technology at Mic, was actually inside that elevator. He responded to Singer’s Tweet with a video of his own, showing what it looked like from the inside.
“Smoke was also everywhere from the water shorting out the lights,” he added.
FYI this is what it looked like IN THE ELEVATOR trapped between floors. Smoke was also everywhere from the water shorting out the lights. pic.twitter.com/YWEM80aGFG
— Alan Haburchak (@ahaburchak) September 26, 2017
The fire department said that they received a call for a stuck elevator around 12:30 p.m. and that the units in service removed those who were stuck inside the lift at 1:30 p.m. Shortly before that, Haburchak tweeted that a building management official spoke over the PA system saying that, “The leak has been addressed, and everything is safe.”
The leak sprung from a condenser line on the 88th floor of the building, said Jordan Barowitz, vice president of public affairs at the Durst Organization, which manages the building. The tweet was retweeted by the One World Trade Center’s official account, as well.
That leak triggered an alarm system that caused two “elevator entrapments,” he added. Both elevators are now clear.
Even those who opted for the stairs were at risk, as another video captured water leaking into the stairwells on the building’s 88th floor.
The leaks in the stairway @ 85th floor One WTC pic.twitter.com/nvtVE7ebfW
— Shashank Singh (@shankybaba) September 26, 2017