Times Observer file photo A worker was trapped Wednesday for several hours at 300 Second Ave. The worker was eventually freed with the help of the City of Warren Fire Department.

Getting stuck in an elevator is the stuff of some people’s nightmares.

On Wednesday, a downtown Warren worker was stuck in an elevator for more than three hours.

According to the City of Warren Fire Department, the person “handled this situation like a champ.”

The person’s name was not released.

“The elevator systems at 300 Second Ave. were inspected and reported to be in full working order,” around noon on Wednesday, according to Warren County Development Association Executive Director Jim Decker. The building is owned by WCDA. “Several hours following completion of that inspection there was a service outage which left both elevator cars immobile. This outage occurred while an employee of a building tenant was using the elevator to leave the building, becoming entrapped in the elevator cab for several hours.”

“We received a call at 300 Second Ave. for a stalled elevator,” City of Warren Fire Department Operations and Training Officer Steve Hoffman said.

Firefighters responded with an engine to the scene.

“At the time of our arrival, there was no imminent danger to the individual in the stalled elevator,” Hoffman said. “It was determined that the elevator in question was stalled approximately 3 feet above the third floor.”

The department has equipment to open many elevator doors in emergencies.

“The elevator doors on the third floor and above did not have escutcheon key releases which are utilized to open the elevator doors from the outside, in the event of these types of situations,” Hoffman said.

Firefighters were ready to get the elevator doors open by force, if necessary.

“Since the subject was not in any imminent danger we determined that forcible entry would be a last resort,” he said. “During this entire call, we were able to maintain good contact with the individual in the stalled elevator. This individual handled the situation unbelievably well and I commend them for their fortitude.”

The second elevator remained working for a while.

“During our rescue operations, the remaining elevator developed an issue as well and became inoperable which compounded this situation,” Hoffman said. “Once the remaining elevator failed we no longer had access to the elevator hoistway.”

Still, there was no imminent danger. “A call was placed to Schindler Elevator for assistance and they responded a tech from Erie,” he said. “Once the tech arrived on the scene he worked for approximately an hour to repair either car so we could gain access to the subject.”

By 6 p.m., firefighters were moving toward making the call on forcible entry.

“We began to set up for this option,” Hoffman said.

“As a last-ditch effort, the tech who was in the Penthouse of the elevator shaft called one of our personnel on the third floor who had verbal contact with the subject and informed them that he had shut the power to the elevator car and made it so the subject may be able to open the inner door from inside the car,” he said. “This was communicated to the subject.”

A firefighter was able to video call into the elevator, see the inside of the car, and describe how to release the latch on the outer door.

“This was performed by the subject wonderfully,” Hoffman said. “Once our personnel were able to protect the opening to the hoistway under the elevator car, which is an opening that was approximately 40 feet deep, the subject was assisted out of the elevator and onto the third floor.”

“A maintenance team from Schindler Elevator is working to diagnose the cause of this outage and return the system to full service as soon as possible,” Decker said. “We thank the City of Warren Fire Department for their assistance with this situation.”