CAUGHT IN A LIFT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2562, 24 July 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

CAUGHT IN A LIFT.

PLIGHT OP A WATCHMAN IN A

LONDON BANK.

A party of policemen breaking open the doors of. a bank was- the unusual scene witnessed in Fleet-street, London, late on Saturday night, May 28. Their wo-rk was one of rescue. A member of tlie 18th County of London Territorials named Mr T. Keen when passing the door of Parr’s Bank heard the screams of a man, evidently in great agony, coming from within tho building. Ho called the police, but they were unabo to obtain an entrance as the doors were securely locked.

The screams could ho hoard/ by the police, who hurried to Bridewell Station for tools to force, the door. * This was accomplished after twenty minutes’ work. The police then found-the night watchman in a state of collapse, .pinned between the' lift and the shaft. Before he could ho -released, part of the lift had to be sawn away to free his leg. Tho man—-Thomas Fitzgibbons, of - 118, Glenarm-road, Hackney—was taken to' St. Bartholomew’s Hospital after his leg had been dressed by a doctor.

Fitzgibbons, who was alone ill the bank, it' appears was sitting on /the lilt mending one of his boots, when lie found that ho had not' got his.' awl. He started the lift to go down to the basement, lmt it went too quickly and lie reversed the . direction, with disastrous results, for the lift went up as quickly as it descended. It was then that li’is leg, got caught and lie shouted for help. 'He lost consciousness soon after , his rescuers reached Him - Had his cries not been heard he would have remained in this terrible position until the bank opened on Tuesday morning after the holidays. At tlie hospital it was stated thot his injuries were serious but noedangerous. |