NORTHAMPTON — A 64-year-old McDonald House resident was trapped in an elevator in the affordable housing property Monday — for more than three hours.
“That’s got to stop,” said Daniel Mihalak, minutes after the Northampton Fire Department pried open the elevator doors and rescued him. “What if I had a f—ing heart attack?”
Mihalak said he was in the elevator at noon when it dropped from the seventh floor to the third floor. He said it’s not unusual for the elevators in McDonald House to stop working, but that no one had been trapped for that long before.
“People get stuck in it all the time but it starts back up,” said Mihalak.
Mihalak is disabled with two replaced hips, and has had both a broken neck and back.
“My hips are killing me,” he said.
“Standing in there all that time,” he continued. “I couldn’t sit.”
Mihalak also said that “everybody’s complained” about the elevators before, but that nothing has been done.
Northampton Housing Authority Executive Director Cara Clifford said that the authority kept calling KONE, which is contracted to provide the technicians for the elevators, every 15 minutes, and was told each time that a technician would be there in 30 minutes.
Northampton Deputy Fire Chief Tim McQueston said the department received the call at about 12:30 p.m.
“I don’t think anybody has been trapped that long in an elevator in the city,” he said, noting that normally a technician opens it beforehand or, in the case of medical distress, the department forces it open.
However, McQueston said the elevator company gave an estimated time of arrival of 45 minutes after the first call, and a 30-to-45-minute ETA after the second.
“The elevator company did not respond in a timely manner,” McQueston said.
Finally, the decision was made to wait no longer, by Clifford and the fire captain on hand, and Mihalak was rescued by the Fire Department after 3:15 p.m.
The elevator was between the third and second floor, and Mihalak was pulled out through the opening on the third floor. Mihalak praised the performance of the department.
“He was out there talking to me the whole time,” said Mihalak, of one of the firefighters. “Kept me calm.”
Clifford said she was considering getting KONE to compensate the authority for damages to the elevator incurred in the rescue.
“Those doors are completely damaged now,” she said.
She also said that she checked in with Mihalak regularly throughout the ordeal.
When contacted, KONE was not able to provide comment by deadline.
Clifford said there have been issues with the elevators before.
“They’re old — they’re from the ’40s,” said Clifford.
She also said that the authority will soon be able to put out to bid the job of replacing one of the elevators at McDonald House, using monies from the authority’s 2018 HUD Capital Fund grant. Should the money be there, Clifford said that the authority will try to use monies from its 2019 HUD Capital Fund grant to replace the second elevator, and that the cost of the project is why it was divided into two parts.
Clifford said the elevator that failed Monday would be the first to be replaced, although she could not give an estimated time when this might take place.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.