I. The situation of “breaking the door to save people” in elevator rescue

Many of the news regarding elevator rescue mentioned the Fire and Rescue Police or residents breaking the door to rescue the people trapped inside. Is “breaking the door” the only or best solution to elevator rescue? 

1. Criticized for not allowing firefighters to break the door

There was an incident where the elevator jammed due to a power outage in a hotel in Chengtu, Sichuan, China, in September 2023, causing a group of people to be stuck in the cabin.

One of these people was a little girl. After finding out about this, the girl’s father worried that his daughter was in danger due to a lack of air in the cabin and called firefighters to the sence for a rescue. 

At the time, the hotel manager requested the firefighters not to pry open the door and damage the elevator. Then, the victim’s family lost their composure, causing the manager to leave the area. Without the hotel’s permission, the firefighters were not allowed to intervene. 

Afterward, the power was restored, and the victims safely left the elevator. 

The manager’s action received great backlash from the public, the posts sharing the story received over 8000 comments, most of them negative. 

However, on the other hand, if we understand or are trained in elevator rescue, we will know that the manager’s action was not so blameworthy and that the process of elevator rescue does not necessarily require breaking the door and damaging the device. In fact, breaking the door even increases the risk for the people stuck inside. 

2. A series of cases where rescuers broke the doors to save the people trapped inside

In the event of an elevator problem leading to people being stuck, the Fire and Rescue Police will take part in an emergency rescue. With their professional knowledge, they will have many ways to approach the scene and rescue the victim, ensuring their health and safety.  

However, it is not hard to see that in most cases, the victim trapped inside the elevator was rescued by breaking the door. 

An image of a Fire and Rescue Police using a crowbar to pry open the door and rescuing 2 people trapped inside the elevator due to a sudden power outage in Nghe An, on May 28th, 2023 – Photo: Dan Tri 

Rescuing 3 people trapped in an elevator in Hue City, on March 19th,2023 

The state of the elevator door after rescuing 4 people stuck inside in Hai Phong, June 5th, 2023 

3. Rescuing “without distinction” does more harm than good

The people criticizing the hotel manager when he prevented the rescue force from breaking the door do not  have sufficient information on the elevator and believe that elevator rescue should solely prioritize saving people as quickly as possible. However, in reality, the elevator is a specialized device, and rescuing without following the technical process can carry the risk of serious accidents for the people trapped inside. 

The situations that can usually occur include: 

– The process of breaking the door puts a considerable force on the entire elevator system, damaging the device, landing door… 

– Breaking the elevator door without confirming the location where the cabin stopped, bringing people out when the cabin is not in a safe zone, thus possibly causing an accident in which someone is crushed or caught by the cabin falling into the shaft, or by falling into the shaft themselves…

According to Vietnam’s National Standards (TCVN), a minimum door gap of 0.75 cm can significantly decrease the risk of people falling when exiting the cabin when it is not at an equal height with the floor. However, this method cannot ensure safety if the cabin falls, which is why rescuers need to strictly follow the rule of bringing the cabin to a safe zone (no more than 20 cm higher or lower than the floor) before taking people out 

Moreover, many people misunderstand the risk related to being trapped in an elevator. The following are clearer answers on the risks when being trapped in an elevator to help us correctly understand and act more suitably and safely. 

II. Serious misunderstandings regarding elevator rescue

1. Can being stuck inside an elevator lead to suffocation?

Answer: In reality, an elevator cabin is not as airtight as many may believe. Staying for too long in an elevator cabin, causing the air to run out, leading to difficulties in breathing and suffocation, is a very rare occurrence. 

By design, an elevator cabin will have a ventilation system for air circulation in and outside of the cabin (inside the shaft). Even when there is an accident, and the elevator does not have an emergency ventilation system, the air would still be able to circulate. 

What if there are multiple people in the elevator? 

Even with many people in the elevator, running out of oxygen in the air cannot easily happen. An elevator’s design always maintains the proportion between the number of people inside the elevator, the area of the cabin, and the area of the shaft according to technical regulations. Therefore, if there was an incident where the elevator was stuck with multiple people inside, in the worst-case scenario, the victims would only feel slightly harder to breathe than normal. The reason for this is likely to be because of the feeling of fear, causing increased heartbeat, panic… leading to difficulty breathing. Especially for the elderly, children, and pregnant women, or people with preexisting heart conditions, this can be dangerous. 

Therefore, the people trapped inside the elevator need to keep calm and not scream or shout, to avoid stimulating themselves and others. It is best to move gently, encourage each others, relax, push the bell button to call for help, and wait.

Moreover, both the victims and the people outside should not find ways to pry open the door according to baseless instructions to create a gap for air to circulate. In fact, trying to pry open the door and shoving can cause the door to be stuck, causing more difficulties in the rescue process.

2. Should we find a way to pry open the door and escape?

Answer: We absolutely should not pry open the door to escape, regardless of whether we were the one trapped inside or standing outside. 

Firstly, when we cannot determine whether the cabin stop position is in the safe zone for opening the door, it is very likely that after we open the door, the outside is the shaft’s wall instead of the landing door. 

Secondly, trying to pry open the door and climbing outside can cause the victim to fall into the shaft, if the elevator is hanging in between the floors, or to be crushed or stuck. 

Thirdly, prying open the door, whether from the inside or outside, may cause the elevator to be broken or stuck, leading to difficulties in the rescue process in controlling the device. 

Due to these reasons, when being trapped in an elevator or finding people trapped inside, we absolutely should not pry open the door. What we need to do is use the rescue buttons on the elevator panel or find a way to contact the people outside using the emergency phone installed inside the elevator or a mobile phone… and contact the technical support and rescue force to ensure quick and safe assistance.

3. Will the cabin freefall when the elevator is stuck?

Answer: In reality, no matter the reason, such as sudden power outage, or technical error… the elevator cannot freefall. The fear of the elevator falling came from when an elevator is moving at high speed suddenly encountering an issue, the cabin sliding from inertia causing the people inside to feel like they are freefalling. Even in the case where all the cables holding the cabin and the counterweight were broken and the cabin exceeded the allowed limit, then the anti-falling brake system would activate, pinning the cabin onto the rails, stopping it, and ensuring the safety of the people inside. 

The elevator will only fall when all the cables and the anti-falling system are broken. 

Therefore, when stuck inside an elevator, we should stay calm and press the rescue button and contact people from the outside instead of panicking and worrying about the elevator freefalling. 

After the serious misunderstanding regarding elevator rescue mentioned above, let’s find out more about the regulations on elevator rescue in Part 2: Elevator rescue – From device designing to specialized training