‘There was panic, there was praying’: Men rescued from flooded Toronto elevator
TORONTO — Two co-workers stranded in their office elevator while flood waters from an intense rainstorm rose to their necks used their fists and heads to open a ceiling panel to call for help as Toronto police raced to save them.
Klever Freire and Gabriel Otrin figured they were about five minutes away from drowning when officers managed to pull them to safety, bringing an end to a harrowing half-hour.
The dramatic rescue took place Tuesday night as a slow-moving storm system drenched the city core while leaving the outskirts virtually dry.
Freire, 34, and Otrin, 27, said their late-night ordeal triggered a range of emotions, but also sparked a basic survival instinct.
“There was panic, there was praying, there was deciding that we were going to get out of there no matter what and then figuring out a way to do it,” Freire said Wednesday.
Their task wasn’t easy. The men said their troubles began when they were taking the elevator to the building’s basement parking lot to check on their vehicles after hearing reports of flooding.
The elevator stopped a few metres below the first floor, the men said, and water began seeping in from the gaps between the closed door. The electronics on board were soon out of order, leaving Otrin and Freire without working buttons or an emergency phone.
In a bid to get a signal on his cellphone, Otrin said, he started using his fists to punch out a ceiling panel. He eventually tried pushing it up with his head, surprisingly finding he had more leverage that way.
Freire also had a go at dislodging the panel, adding he was fearful of dropping the one cellphone on board and losing their best hope for a rescue.
Eventually, the two men succeeded in breaking the ceiling panel open and calling 911. As they shared their plight with dispatchers, however, they watched as the water inside the elevator crept even higher.
By the time Const. Ryan Barnett and Const. Josh McSweeney arrived on the scene, the co-workers were nearly neck high in filthy water. Eventually, the two officers opened the elevator and pulled the men to safety.