United States – An incident that occurred on Thursday saw twelve people stuck at one thousand feet in what used to be a gold mine in Colorado for about six hours due to a malfunctioning elevator before it was fixed to allow them to surface safely, according to the officials, as reported by Reuters.
The elevator was occupied by a set of tourists when it started to malfunction midway through the depth of the mine shaft at the renowned Cripple Creek located in Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine.
Elevator Malfunction Traps Tourists
Said Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, without clarification of what caused the man’s death. Four others were injured, out of which one did not survive the mishap that happened due to the malfunction of the equipment.
The elevator was stopped for some time before it was again brought back to the surface with 11 persons on board, he added.
Rescue Efforts and Recovery
However, 11 other tourists and one tour guide found themselves trapped at a deeper level to wait for the elevator to be fixed before they could be rescued. They were then brought back four at a time, which was done six hours later.
“They’re all in good spirits. We fed them pizza. That’s what they wanted,” Mikesell said.
The repair saved the need for a rescue plan that required putting down a harness into the mine shaft with a rope and then pulling people up one by one.
The Colorado Springs Fire Department stated that their presence involved crews trained to conduct such a rescue.
Emergency Response and Preparedness
The individuals were provided with constant radio contact while they were locked in the reactor building, and they could get access to water, blankets, and chairs.
They were not informed that there was a death of someone in the other tour group just to make them get anxious, according to Mikesell.
History of the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine
Cripple Creek is about 45 miles from Colorado Springs and through mountain roads, near the Pikes Peak summit in the southern part of the Front Range of the Rockies.
Pike’s Peak has family business running the tours at Mollie Kathleen mine for over 50 years that was previously involved in a safety issue in which people were stuck in elevator in 1986 according to Mikesell, as reported by Reuters.
These one-hour tours demonstrate how since gold was discovered on the site by Mollie Kathleen Gortner in 1891, the resource was mined at the site, the tour’s website states. Temperatures below the ground are generally approximately 50 F (approximately 10 C).
A tour service has existed since the beginning of the formation of the mine but became the main use of the place after mining ceased in 1961, as the website suggests. It had been planned that the last tour should take place on Sunday.