DOWNTOWN — Chicago firefighters said they saved two women from an elevator in a River North office tower Wednesday morning after a power surge left them stuck on the 19th floor.
Fire crews arrived shortly after power went out around 9 a.m., according to a worker in the building. At least five fire trucks and an ambulance were on the scene about 11 a.m. at 444 N. Michigan Ave.
A firefighter leaving the building said crews completed the rescue by 11:30 a.m. after emergency responders rappelled about three floors down the building's elevator shaft and brought the women stuck back up.
Otherwise there was "no drama," the firefighter said.
The emergency was compounded Wednesday morning by the lifting of the Michigan Avenue Bridge, which was also stuck by the power outage and backed up traffic for blocks along the Magnificent Mile.
Police began diverting traffic onto eastbound Illinois Street during the elevator rescue, and the bridge was lowered again about 12:30 p.m.
While crews assessed the situation, other workers in the office were stuck on their respective floors:
36th floor view #stuckat444 with @libbylangsdorf and @AdamMesirow. Can someone send @Starbucks? pic.twitter.com/K83YO9E60j
— Maggie Ross (@margaret__ross) November 4, 2015The outage apparently spread well beyond Michigan Avenue. Gold Coast resident Zachary Foshee told DNAinfo Chicago that he was stuck with his dogs on about the 13th floor of his apartment building for about an hour Wednesday morning.
"I called the building maintenance guy and he FaceTime'd me to show me how to pry the yellow door open," Foshee said. "From there we were only a foot or two off the ground so we just hopped out."
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Fire Commander Walter Schroeder said the stuck elevator at 444 N. Michigan was reported at 9:47 a.m., and crews responded immediately after. The women rescued declined medical attention, and the scene was cleared at 11:26 a.m. Schroeder said the fire department was not made aware of power outages anywhere else.
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