Tabletop Tuesday: Edition 6 - People Are Trapped

Jun 13

It's 5:47pm on a Thursday.

Your security desk calls. Three people are trapped in Elevator 2 - mid cab, between the 6th and 7th floors. The car stopped hard, no warning. One of them is on the emergency phone with dispatch. Another is claustrophobic and starting to escalate. The third is asking when someone is coming.

Your engineer left the building 40 minutes ago. You have the elevator company's number.

What are the first three things you do - in order?

What Most Teams Get Wrong Before Anyone Is Even Trapped

Elevator entrapments are the emergency where the preparation gap shows up fast because the response sequence is counterintuitive, the liability exposure is significant, and the wrong action can injure someone or cause tens of thousands of dollars in equipment damage.

The teams that handle this well have three things documented before it ever happens: their elevator vendor's 24-hour emergency line, their fire department's entrapment protocol, and a clear threshold for when one call replaces the other. If you don't have all three, this tabletop just gave you a work order.

A Quick Operator's Guide to Your Elevator System

Traction elevators use steel cables and a counterweight system - standard in mid to high rise commercial buildings. Hydraulic elevators use a fluid driven piston and are more common in low rise structures. The machine room location, failure modes, and rescue access points are different for each. Know which system you have.

Both types have automatic emergency brakes that engage if the car moves outside normal parameters.

Your engineer's first job during an entrapment: get to the machine room and be ready to hand the arriving technician four things - the elevator group designation, the manufacturer, whether it's hydraulic or traction, and the service contract number. If your engineer can't do that walk confidently right now, then add that to the list this week.

The single most important physical variable in any entrapment is where the car stopped relative to the landing. A car stopped within a foot of a floor is a manageable extraction. A car stopped between floors is a different situation entirely and nobody opens those doors until the technician confirms position and gives the clearance.

Do not pry the doors. Do not use the ceiling hatch. Do not attempt a manual release without proper training and lockout procedures in place. Untrained rescue attempts injure people and cause significant equipment damage. Your engineer's job is to be a resource for the technician - not to improvise a rescue.

The Decision Sequence

Establish communication with the occupants and keep it

The message is calm, direct, and specific: "We know you're in there. We're contacting the elevator company and fire department right now - someone will be with you shortly. The car is safe. Please stay toward the center of the cab, away from the doors. Don't try to open the doors or the ceiling hatch. We'll update you in five minutes."

Communication is critical - imagine if you were in the elevator, how often would you want an update?

Call your elevator vendor and get the ETA

This is the call that drives every decision that follows. Your service contractor is obligated to respond to entrapments 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call them now. The single most important piece of information from that call: how long until their technician is on site.

Apply your ETA threshold

If your vendor can respond within 30 minutes and there are no medical concerns the elevator company will likely handle it.

If your vendor's ETA exceeds 30 minutes, or if you have a medical situation, a tenant in significant distress, or a car confirmed between floors the fire department will likely be very involved.

That threshold should be documented in your emergency plan. Not improvised on the call. Before your next fire drill, ask your responding fire department directly: what is your entrapment protocol and what triggers your response? Get that answer in writing, for your notes.

When you call the fire department:

"We have an elevator entrapment at [address], [elevator number], currently between floors 6 and 7. Three occupants, one with reported anxiety. Elevator company has been contacted, ETA is [X] minutes. Requesting fire department response."

What you do not do.

Do not attempt a manual door release
Do not tell occupants to exit through the ceiling hatch unless there is an active life safety threat inside the car
Do not reset the elevator system while people are inside
Do not leave the people unattended, communication is key to maintaining calm

While the Technician Is En Route

Your engineer is at the machine room with everything the technician needs, ready on arrival. They are not attempting anything independently.

Security is maintaining voice contact on a five-minute check-in cycle. Every update follows the same structure: we know you're there, help is on the way, ETA is [X] minutes, stay away from the doors.

If the claustrophobic tenant is escalating to the point of a medical concern - that changes your fire department calculus immediately.

Document as you go: time of entrapment report, time of vendor call, ETA given, occupant names if obtainable, any reported medical conditions, time of each communication with the car.

After the Rescue

Follow up with every person who was in that car, because it's the right move. A brief personal acknowledgment from the property manager goes a long way after a stressful experience.

Get a written incident report from your vendor. Understand the cause. Know whether the car goes back into service or stays down for further inspection. That decision belongs to the certified technician.

What This Drill Reveals About Your Building

Do you have your elevator vendor's 24-hour emergency line posted at the security desk and in your engineer's phone?
Do you know the ETA threshold at which your building escalates to a fire department rescue and have you confirmed that with both your vendor and your local FD?
Does your security team know the communication script for an occupied, stopped car including what to tell the occupants not to do?
Does your engineer know the machine room location for every elevator in the building and can they identify the car group, manufacturer, and service contract on arrival?
Have you ever tested your in-cab emergency phone? Do you know where it rings?

Run This Tabletop With Your Team

Setup (10 min): Pull your elevator directory. Identify the car in the most difficult position to access. Confirm your vendor's after-hours number. Assign roles - PM, security, engineer, elevator company liaison.

Run the scenario (25 min): Walk through the first 30 minutes in real time. Practice the communication script to the occupants. Make the vendor call and get an ETA. Apply your threshold and make the fire department call decision. Inject a complication: the claustrophobic tenant is now hyperventilating.

Debrief (10 min): Did your team know the threshold? Did security know what to say and what not to say? Could your engineer have gotten to the machine room and handed the technician what they needed without looking anything up?

If you found this newsletter interesting, consider checking out these past editions:

Matt Faupel