EXCLUSIVE: Jersey City firefighters rescue teen girls stuck in 90-foot-tall elevator at NJ Transit Light Rail stop along Palisades Cliffs
Within minutes, Jersey City firefighters were on the scene and using their training methods to pull the girls to safety.
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Two teenage girls became stuck in an elevator traveling 90 feet down the Palisades Cliffs from the Jersey City entrance to the 9th Street NJ Transit Light Rail station Saturday night.
Within minutes, Jersey City firefighters were on the scene and using their training methods to pull the girls to safety.
Bill Bowman and Micheal Leonard were part of about a dozen Jersey City firefighters assigned to the dangerous rescue.
“I was the first person to go down on the rope system and actually physically make, patient contact with them. They were both calm and collected. And my reaction was just to keep them, you know, their minds off of everything going on,” said Leonard.
“They determined that we're going to go off on a rope. So, we bring our equipment in, we supplement, we start rigging systems,” said Bowman.
These firefighters kept everyone calm. Chief Jack Johnson credits their daily training.
“To the people that are in the elevator or to any call, we go on, it's the worst day of our life. So, we're here to serve them for the worst days of their life,” said Chief Johnson.
The girls’ elevator became stuck only about 20 feet from the bottom of the Hoboken side platform. But because the escape hatch is on the ceiling of the cab, the only way out was back the way they came.
“There's a lot of equipment involved, a lot of bags, a lot of carabiners and pulleys and ropes and all kinds of equipment,” said Bowman.
Problems had been reported before with this elevator shaft, which is now out of service. An NJ Transit crew and elevator repair company were seen outside of the Jersey City entrance on Wednesday.
The rescue took several hours, and no one was hurt, despite the claustrophobic stall, the 60-foot hoist and the nerves of such an unexpected, and primal-fear inducing moment.
“One girl was telling me that she had gone rock climbing before, and this was pretty similar situation there,” added Bowman.
News 12 has reached out to NJ Transit for further comment on what led to the elevator failure at the light rail station.
