| Grabbed from the video of “The Nation Builder.”
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu – At least 18 nursing students of the Cebu Technological University – Main Campus were in a hurry to leave the school’s Science and Technology (ST) building after they completed their examination Monday night, November 4.
But they were trapped in the elevator and risked suffocation.
Senior Fire Officer 3 (SFO3) Wendell Villanueva, the information officer of the Cebu City Fire Station, said that they had to do the rescue in haste, afraid that the students would suffocate from lack of oxygen.
The elevator, that has a maximum capacity of 10 persons, was very overcrowded at that time.
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The incident happened at around 7:30 p.m. on Monday in one of the buildings inside the CTU-Main Campus located at the corner of M.J Cuenco Avenue and R. Palma Street in Brgy. Tinago, Cebu City.
Trapped in elevator
The nursing students came from the ST Building’s 5th floor and were headed to the ground floor. But they could no longer open the elevator’s door when they reached their destination.
When personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection-EMS Unit arrived, Senior Fire Officer 1 (SFO1) Jeric Alburo immediately ordered his men, in coordination with the university’s Quick Response Team, to look for tools like crowbar, metal tube/bar that they could use to open the elevator’s door.
A team led by FO1 Justin Englaterra worked to open the elevator’s door while FO2 Mari Carmeli Tudtud tried to pacify the trapped nursing students who were beginning to panic and become restless.
The rescue took at least five minutes, a footage of which was posted on the official Facebook page of “The Nation Builder,” the official news portal of CTU-Main Campus.
After the rescue, the students’ vital signs were checked before they were finally allowed to go home.
The ST building’s elevator remains non-functional as of this writing.