Elevator stuck in Tamarack, two students shafted

Starting in early 1994, I worked for my first-ever newspaper, The Northern Student, the student newspaper at Bemidji State University, where I attended and received my bachelor's degree in mass communication. Over three years, I would be a staff writer, news editor, managing editor and editor. I wrote everything from news stories to feature stories to sports stories to opinion pieces. It was the greatest training ground a journalist could ever have, and I am grateful to the many talented people I worked alongside in my years at The NS.

Dec. 7,1994

By Devlyn Brooks

News Editor

"I never thought a hockey stick could be so useful," said freshman Liza Erlendson.

On Nov. 11, a hockey stick was used to pry open the doors on the elevator, where Erlendson and her boyfriend Seth Duncan were trapped.

According to Duncan, they were riding a Tamarack elevator when it stopped between the fourth and fifth floors. "It made a funny sound, and then it just stopped," said Erlendson.

Duncan proceeded to call BSU security with the elevator's emergency phone. After waiting 45 minutes, they were rescued by a resident assistant. The RA took the second elevator up to the fifth floor and tried passing Duncan a broom to open the outside elevator doors. Unfortunately, the broom handle was too thick to squeeze into the space between the elevator door and the elevator wall.

Duncan was then passed a hockey stick because it was thin enough to slide through. He used the hockey stick to "jimmy the outside door" by moving one of the rollers which controls it. An electrician came later and fixed the door.

And what did they do for 45 minutes? Duncan said, "We talked about a lot small things," and they also talked about the stuck elevator scene from the movie "Speed." He added, "You had to find a comfortable spot on the floor where your butt wouldn't go numb."

Erlendson said she was hesitant the next time she used the elevators, but it doesn't bother her now. "I wasn't scared. I just didn't want to spend my entire Saturday night in an elevator."