YOUNGSTOWN Brush with death in elevator floors city worker

The city is still investigating what happened to the elevator and why.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Don't be surprised if Ricky Suarez wins the lottery one day soon.
Rarely will you meet anyone luckier.
Suarez, an operator at the city sewer plant, escaped death by a step Sunday afternoon in an elevator malfunction.
Suarez had just taken the elevator from the second to the third floor of the sewer plant's incineration building about 2 p.m.
He stepped off the passenger car, and the moment the doors closed behind him, the elevator cut loose.
The car shot to the top of the elevator shaft on the fifth floor. The 4,000-pound weights that control the car plummeted to the ground.
Serious danger
Suarez is sure he would have been killed or critically injured if the malfunction happened while he still was inside the car or caught in the midst of stepping out.
"I just got lucky. Real lucky," he said. "It was a scary situation."
Mario Poluse, another plant operator, was in the control room when he heard what he thought sounded like an earthquake.
"I heard a tremendous noise," he said. "The whole building shook."
Despite the earth-shattering noise, nobody realized what really happened. The elevator doors all were closed, so workers couldn't see into the shaft. They figured the passenger car had -- albeit loudly -- become stuck between floors. They weren't aware the weights had crashed down, jerking the car up.
Monday was a government holiday, so nobody knew the extent of the scare until Tuesday.
Poluse and Suarez said a repairman told them the shaft on the motor that moves the elevator weights and controls the passenger car apparently snapped. That caused the weights to fall and pulled the car up.
City investigates
The city is still investigating what happened and why, said Carmen Conglose Jr., deputy director of public works.
Inspectors regularly check the elevator, and there weren't any unusual past problems, he said. Conglose said somebody usually notifies him when a city elevator has problems, especially repeated breakdowns, so repairs can be made.
"I haven't heard anything about this one," he said.
Repairing the damage could cost upward of $50,000, Conglose said. The amount depends on how much damage, if any, is covered by the city's service contract on the elevator.
Suarez never noticed that the elevator had frequent breakdowns or a history of any unusual problems. However, he said that earlier Sunday, the elevator did jerk more than usual. Also, the car was six to 12 inches out of alignment with the hallway.
"It's real weird," he said.
rgsmith@vindy.com