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Blackout 2003-Rescues
Hmmmm, what's missing.....or better yet, What other prominent NYC agency is not mentioned in this story
NEW YORK (AP) - Dangling in a harness suspended high within an
elevator shaft at the Empire State Building, David Goldberg was
surprised to hear his police rescuers referring to him over their
radios as "the victim."
In fact, he found the whole thing rather exciting.
The native New Yorker had never been to the 102-story landmark
before last Thursday, when the city lost power during the biggest
blackout in U.S. history as he headed to a meeting on the 62nd
floor. When the express elevator went dark and jolted to a stop
around the 52nd floor, Goldberg found out through the intercom that
he might be stranded for a while, so he peeled off his suit and sat
down to wait.
He read the newspaper (the dim emergency bulbs on the ceiling of
the car provided enough light, if he stood on his briefcase and
squinted at the print). He discovered an electronic flying game on
his cell phone (the 39-year-old attorney and father of two girls
never had time for that before).
He dozed. He stood on the railing and tried to open the
emergency hatch on the ceiling. He pried the doors open for air,
finding a brick wall on the other side. He tried, a million times,
to call his wife.
But he didn't panic.
"I have a sense of adventure," Goldberg, who was trapped for
at least five hours, told The Associated Press. "Not that I wanted
to be there, but if it had to happen to anybody, I'm glad it
happened to me."
The Emergency Service Unit officers who rescued Goldberg and
another man from a different elevator in the city's tallest
building were among several New Yorkers honored on Tuesday for
their work during the blackout. Others included a team of nurses
who kept a premature baby alive with a manual ventilator and
transit workers who evacuated stalled subway trains.
"The rescues they made were dramatic," Mayor Michael Bloomberg
said.
At the Empire State Building, guided by emergency lights and
fellow officers on radios, Detective James Moran rappelled down the
shaft and landed on top of Goldberg's elevator. He unlocked two
sliding bolts and four nut bolts, opened the hatch and slid into
the car.
Moran hooked Goldberg to a harness and signaled for the other
officers to haul him out. Goldberg, 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, was
slowly pulled through the hatch and up to the 55th floor, bracing
his dress shoes along the wall as if he were walking up the shaft.
Rescue workers plucked hundreds of people from elevators during
the blackout, but most weren't quite as inspired by Hollywood. Most
cars could be accessed from the closest floors to where they
stopped. Express elevators like the one Goldberg was riding
required more creative methods.
After the officers handed Goldberg a bottle of water and sent
him on his way, they moved on to find Luis Nieves, a security guard
trapped in an elevator near the 32nd floor.
Unable to reach Nieves any other way, they used jackhammers to
bore a hole through two layers of brick and firewall and lowered a
ladder to get to him.
Throughout all their rescues that night, the officers had to
maintain a calm presence while working quickly, Detective Gregory
Mathius said.
"We were giving them a little psychological first aid, trying
to keep them calm," he said.
Mathius said that during the evening the team stopped counting
the number of rescues it performed.
Bloomberg awarded certificates to the eight police officers and
about 20 others during the ceremony at City Hall on Tuesday.
"We've all got a lot to be proud of," he said. "Their
training and professionalism and devotion to the city shined during
the city's darkest hours."
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
NEW YORK (AP) - Dangling in a harness suspended high within an
elevator shaft at the Empire State Building, David Goldberg was
surprised to hear his police rescuers referring to him over their
radios as "the victim."
In fact, he found the whole thing rather exciting.
The native New Yorker had never been to the 102-story landmark
before last Thursday, when the city lost power during the biggest
blackout in U.S. history as he headed to a meeting on the 62nd
floor. When the express elevator went dark and jolted to a stop
around the 52nd floor, Goldberg found out through the intercom that
he might be stranded for a while, so he peeled off his suit and sat
down to wait.
He read the newspaper (the dim emergency bulbs on the ceiling of
the car provided enough light, if he stood on his briefcase and
squinted at the print). He discovered an electronic flying game on
his cell phone (the 39-year-old attorney and father of two girls
never had time for that before).
He dozed. He stood on the railing and tried to open the
emergency hatch on the ceiling. He pried the doors open for air,
finding a brick wall on the other side. He tried, a million times,
to call his wife.
But he didn't panic.
"I have a sense of adventure," Goldberg, who was trapped for
at least five hours, told The Associated Press. "Not that I wanted
to be there, but if it had to happen to anybody, I'm glad it
happened to me."
The Emergency Service Unit officers who rescued Goldberg and
another man from a different elevator in the city's tallest
building were among several New Yorkers honored on Tuesday for
their work during the blackout. Others included a team of nurses
who kept a premature baby alive with a manual ventilator and
transit workers who evacuated stalled subway trains.
"The rescues they made were dramatic," Mayor Michael Bloomberg
said.
At the Empire State Building, guided by emergency lights and
fellow officers on radios, Detective James Moran rappelled down the
shaft and landed on top of Goldberg's elevator. He unlocked two
sliding bolts and four nut bolts, opened the hatch and slid into
the car.
Moran hooked Goldberg to a harness and signaled for the other
officers to haul him out. Goldberg, 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, was
slowly pulled through the hatch and up to the 55th floor, bracing
his dress shoes along the wall as if he were walking up the shaft.
Rescue workers plucked hundreds of people from elevators during
the blackout, but most weren't quite as inspired by Hollywood. Most
cars could be accessed from the closest floors to where they
stopped. Express elevators like the one Goldberg was riding
required more creative methods.
After the officers handed Goldberg a bottle of water and sent
him on his way, they moved on to find Luis Nieves, a security guard
trapped in an elevator near the 32nd floor.
Unable to reach Nieves any other way, they used jackhammers to
bore a hole through two layers of brick and firewall and lowered a
ladder to get to him.
Throughout all their rescues that night, the officers had to
maintain a calm presence while working quickly, Detective Gregory
Mathius said.
"We were giving them a little psychological first aid, trying
to keep them calm," he said.
Mathius said that during the evening the team stopped counting
the number of rescues it performed.
Bloomberg awarded certificates to the eight police officers and
about 20 others during the ceremony at City Hall on Tuesday.
"We've all got a lot to be proud of," he said. "Their
training and professionalism and devotion to the city shined during
the city's darkest hours."
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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