Three Hours in a Blind Shaft

Two women were trapped inside an Atlantic City casino elevator with no landing door beside the car and nearly 190 feet of shaft above them. Their rescue took almost three hours. Here is what happened at the Borgata — and what the elevator code says about situations like this.

A stop where there were no doors

Every elevator ride comes with one quiet assumption: wherever the car stops, there will be a door. On Thursday evening, October 22, 2026, two women at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City discovered the exception.

Their elevator had stopped inside a blind shaft — a section of hoistway without landing doors. There was no corridor to step into, no nearby floor from which to evacuate and no simple way out. The car was approximately 190 feet, or 58 metres, below the firefighters’ access point.

The Atlantic City Fire Department received the emergency call at approximately 5:23 p.m. What followed was a rescue operation lasting nearly three hours.

A rescue, one passenger at a time

Under the command of Deputy Chief Duane Brock, crews from Rescue 1, Ladder 1 and Engine 2 established a specialized rope-rescue operation. Captain Jeffrey Jenkins coordinated critical parts of the plan.

Firefighters Anthony Phillips and Brian Berrio rappelled approximately 190 feet down the shaft to reach the stranded car. FOX 29 Philadelphia reported that the rescuers entered through the elevator’s ceiling emergency hatch. Inside, they secured each woman in a rescue harness before crews hoisted them individually to safety.

The second passenger reached the top at approximately 8:19 p.m. The final firefighter exited the shaft at 8:22 p.m. Neither passenger was injured.

Fire Chief Scott Evans described the operation as one of the most demanding scenarios firefighters can face, requiring complete trust in training and equipment. Three hours, nearly 200 feet of vertical rescue and two passengers safely returned to solid ground.

Why was there no landing door?

A blind hoistway is not necessarily a design flaw. In high-rise buildings, express elevators may travel past multiple floors without stopping. Those sections of the shaft have no landing doors because the elevator does not serve those levels.

Normally, a stalled elevator can be moved to the nearest landing for passenger evacuation. If the car cannot be moved while it is inside a blind section, rescuers face a much more complicated problem.

Depending on the installation, access may be available through emergency hoistway doors, an adjacent elevator shaft or the car’s top emergency exit. At the Borgata, firefighters reached the car from above using rope systems.

The reason the elevator stopped has not been publicly established. No public evidence reviewed for this article shows that the installation violated elevator-safety requirements.

What does the elevator code say?

Although this incident occurred in New Jersey, the same ASME A17.1/CSA B44 code family governs elevator safety in Manitoba. Since September 1, 2026, Manitoba has adopted ASME A17.1-2019/CSA B44:19, which includes provisions addressing emergency access to blind hoistways.

Section 2.11.1.2 — Emergency doors in blind hoistways

For a single elevator operating in a blind hoistway, the code generally requires emergency access doors at intervals of no more than three floors, with a maximum vertical distance of 11 metres, or 36 feet, between door sills.

• The minimum opening is 700 mm (28 in.) wide by 2,030 mm (80 in.) high.
• Doors must be self-closing, self-locking and free from fixed obstructions.
• Each door must display “DANGER, ELEVATOR HOISTWAY” in letters at least 50 mm (2 in.) high.
• Access from the landing side requires a Group 1 Security key that must be available to emergency personnel during an emergency.
• From inside the hoistway, the door must be openable without a key.
• An electrical safety contact prevents elevator operation unless the emergency door is fully closed, as referenced by §2.26.2.25.

Section 2.11.1.3 — Blind hoistways without accessible landings

Where emergency doors cannot be provided because no accessible landings exist, the code establishes alternative provisions, including two-way voice communication with the elevator car.

Section 2.14.1.5 — Top emergency exits

The code also establishes requirements for emergency exits in the elevator-car roof. A required top emergency exit must have an opening of at least 0.26 m² (400 square inches), with no side shorter than 400 mm (16 in.). A safety contact prevents normal car operation while the exit is open.

According to the reported rescue details, firefighters used this type of opening to access the stranded passengers at the Borgata.

These provisions do not establish whether the Borgata installation was compliant. Emergency-access arrangements depend on the hoistway configuration, the code edition applicable to the installation and the approved building design.

The lesson behind the rescue

For elevator mechanics, inspectors and building owners, the Borgata incident highlights something easily overlooked during normal operation: emergency access is as important as normal elevator service.

Knowing where blind sections exist, keeping emergency doors unobstructed, maintaining communication equipment and ensuring emergency responders can obtain the appropriate keys can make a critical difference.

On October 22, two women entered an elevator expecting an ordinary ride. Three hours later, they emerged through the roof of the car after a complex rope rescue. The firefighters performed their job successfully. The purpose of the elevator code is to make sure that when the unexpected happens, the building itself has already done as much of its job as possible.