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Mashudu Netsianda Senior Reporter
FOURTEEN people, mostly patients, endured a hellish 30 minutes trapped in a Bulawayo hospital elevator yesterday.
The elevator jammed following a power failure at Lancet House, a specialist private hospital in the city centre.The unlucky 14 sweated buckets after realising the old elevator did not have a device to raise alarm with either the property owners or the Fire Brigade as per regulations.

Compounding their troubles, the elevator was overloaded as eight people should have been on board.

Help was slow coming. People outside conducted their business as usual, oblivious that there were people trapped inside.

One of the trapped persons had to call a doctor at Lancet House on his mobile, and the Fire Brigade was called.

The 14, among them a wheelchair-using patient and a three-year-old child, were subsequently rescued shortly after 12.30PM by technicians from Otis Elevator Company, owners of the lift. They were assisted by the Bulawayo Fire Brigade.

Bulawayo chief fire officer Richard Peterson said the mishap was caused by a power failure.

He said his team reacted swiftly and no-one was injured, just shaken.

“I can confirm that 14 patients were trapped in a lift at Lancet House due to power failure. They were rescued by technicians from the company that owns the facility,” said Peterson.

A witness said: “They were in a state of shock. One of the old ladies was shivering.

“The three-year-old didn’t seem to know what was happening. One man said he was too stressed and was cutting short his business in town and going home.”

A caretaker only identified as Masuku said she only spotted a fire tender arriving at the scene and she became suspicious.

“I was in the building when I heard noise from the siren, and the next thing I saw was a fire truck. I only learnt that people were trapped in the lift after they were rescued,” she said.

The caretaker said yesterday’s mishap was not new as they continued to encounter similar problems.

“These lifts are now very old and many a time people get trapped,” she said.

A spokesman for Otis Elevators said: “Passengers were stuck in a lift at Lancet House after some electricians who were fixing an electrical fault at the building tampered with the power supply of the lift resulting in power failure. We sent our technicians and they quickly addressed the problem.”

The official said the lift was overloaded