TSSA to investigate elevator incident at Bloor St. building
Posted January 16, 2020 4:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario’s Technical Standards and Safety Authority says it is investigating the elevator incident at a Toronto high-rise on Wednesday night.
Emergency crews were called to a building on Bloor Street near Yonge Street around 6:40 p.m. following reports a man was trapped after a malfunction in the elevator caused it to fall a short distance.
Firefighters say the man was eventually rescued two hours later.
The TSSA says initial reports that the elevator was in “free fall” are not consistent with the information it has gathered.
“While the sudden stop of an elevator can be very disturbing to elevator occupants, there are, in fact, many ropes on an elevator and several layers of protection in place to ensure elevators come to a controlled stop,” read a statement released by the TSSA.
The TSSA says while it is too soon to confirm any details, it understands that one of five ropes broke and that caused an emergency brake to be deployed.
The TSSA says the amount of time it took to extract the trapped individual is due to “the extreme care that must be taken to ensure rescue workers and trapped individuals are safe during the rescue operation.”
The Technical Standards and Safety Authority enforces provincial safety regulations in a number of areas including the safety of amusement devices, boilers and pressure vessels, elevating devices and ski lifts.
