Hi,
My family (3 adults and 2 children) were stuck in a lift of a museum for more than an hour, where we visited as a birthday treat for my daughter.
This included baby who just turned 1 year and high blood pressure patient (mother in law).
The museum staff took it pretty light in the beginning and were saying we have asked the engineer to come out we can't say how long it will take, could be an hour or more and they were happy to just wait.
My family was complaining that it is a small lift and feeling suffocating so I called the emergency service 999 who came out and eventually had to cut the steel door open. This resulted in dust being built up initially while cutting the door and people inside along with the baby started coughing and crying, cutting was stopped then and the glass panel was removed to pass on some masks and ear muffs to people inside.
Finally they were out after the agony of more than an hour, mother in law's blood pressure had already shot up and was not feeling well at all, overall it was a very traumatic experience for my family.
After the engineer arrived around 2.5 hours later, he said why didn't you used a key to open which the museum staff confirmed that they had but didn't know where to insert it (it was a metal key similar to the one used for meter cabinets or loft doors)
Do you see a case here? may be lack of lift maintenance, lack of staff training on using the key to open the door as the lift had almost arrived but the door wouldn't open and lift was not moving to come up the final half a meter.
The lift company contact number was not picking up the call either after first conversation that engineer will be on the way, if they had a person who could've guided the fire staff then most probably there wouldn't have been a need for all that loud banging and hazardous cutting that took place.
The museum has refunded the tickets for the day.
Any suggestions are helpful, thanks
