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A trapped elderly couple, a small opening: A Medford Fire rescue

MEDFORD, Mass. — Engine 4 in Medford got the call Thursday afternoon for two people trapped in an elevator -- an elderly man and his wife

Both had medical conditions and both wanted out.

“She was right off the bat, ‘I want to get out, just get us out. She wasn’t too happy,” Medford Fire Lt. Bob Turner said.

The elevator was stuck between the basement and the first floor of the building on Mystic Valley Parkway.

Firefighters turned off the power and restarted the elevator, but that didn’t work. So they figured out another way to rescue the couple.

"We found a ventilation grate that abutted the elevator," said Lt. Turner.

They lowered the elevator manually and locked it in place, then opened the 16-inch by 16-inch grate and Lt. Turner crawled in.

“I breached that paneling in the elevator and I shimmied through that hole in the wall,” Turner explained. “I figured if I could get into the elevator, I could get them out.”

Once Turner was in, he opened the doors and that’s when the elderly man -- now sitting on the floor -- yelled out, grateful to Lt. Turner and the Medford firefighters who came to their rescue.

“He said, thank God for the fire department,” said Turner.