The lift out of action at Bray in Adelaide Road

JUST weeks after a man was trapped in a lift on the Chalcots estate – another person has become stuck in a faulty lift for an hour and a half.

Last Wednesday night, Sue North, 86, left her flat in Bray on the estate to take the bins out and came back up in the lift only to be trapped in a nightmare situation.

She said the lift thudded and bumped and stopped working.

She was stuck inside for 90 minutes until the fire brigade broke the door down.

“When I got to the top it bumped several times. I hit my elbow,” Ms North told the New Journal.

“I was just pacing up and down at the beginning saying ‘someone get me out’.

“I didn’t have a phone. I didn’t have anything at all with me, I didn’t have any water. There were loads of residents outside and they were talking to me.”

After an agonising 90 minutes the fire brigade arrived.

She said: “They had to break the door down. There was heavy banging and drilling, they said we need to sit on the floor as far away from the door. They pulled me out by my feet, I couldn’t get up from the floor. They got me by the feet and dragged me out.”

Our front page earlier this month about a separate terrifying incident

She said she has been “wary” of using the lifts since then but lives on a high floor so has no other choice.

Ms North added: “I’m wary obviously. I went to my friend’s just now and the lift bonks when you get in. That sort of scared me a bit. I said ‘don’t tell me I’m going to get stuck in this one too!’.”

Stephen Lawson, the TRA chair for Bray said: “Bray TRA deplores the very poor standard of service provided by Apex Lifts and Camden Council when our elderly resident was trapped in a lift in Bray last week.

“She pressed the emergency button for over an hour but apparently there was no response from the lift company. Later they stated that their response times could be up to four hours.

“Eventually the fire brigade managed to free our resident, but also caused considerable damage to the lift and other structures. We have raised concerns that not all the necessary keys were available to the fire service to deal with this emergency.

“The lifts at Bray are under considerable extra strain because they are being used to transport heavy loads of glass, as a result of the faulty glass installation over the past two years.”

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: “We were called at 19:55 to a report of a person stuck in a lift at a block of flats on Fellows Road, NW3. One fire engine attended the scene and firefighters were able to safely release the person from the lift.”

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “We take the safety of our residents extremely seriously, and we apologise for this distressing experience.

“We are investigating this and the response time with all services involved and the contractor. Engineers are attending to repair the lift this week, and we are contacting the resident to discuss their experience further.”