(NY Daily News) – A firefighter was lowered down a 200-foot elevator shaft Wednesday — six times the distance of any practice run — to help rescue four men trapped in an elevator at a Brooklyn Con Edison plant.
Firefighter James Dowdell, 32, was lowered to the top of the elevator inside the Hudson Ave. building in Vinegar Hill about 7:40 a.m. after the elevator stopped 200 feet below street level.
The elevator carrying a Con Edison employee and three contractors was stuck between floors, authorities said.
“Members of Squad 1 tried to access the bottom of (the elevator) but it wasn’t easily accessible,” said Dowdell, an 11-year veteran of the FDNY. “We talked about it and realized that the best way to do this was send a member down.”
Dowdell, of Rescue 2, was given the task. It was the first time he was ever lowered down an elevator shaft, although he had practiced the procedure repeatedly under controlled conditions.
Usually, however, firefighters train by being lowered about 30 feet — not 200 feet.
