Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
Two men were rescued from a small exterior elevator that became stuck Tuesday at the Waukegan Generating Station coal plant on Waukegan’s lakefront.
The men became stranded shortly after 10 a.m., according to Waukegan Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark DeRose, who wasn’t sure how long they had been trapped before firefighters were called. The 3-foot-by-3-foot exterior elevator became stuck about 130 feet in the air.
Two high-angle rescue techs were sent up an access ladder to a catwalk, which had to be stabilized before they could rappel down to the two employees. The men already were wearing safety harnesses, and firefighters dropped them some rope. Both were removed safely.
DeRose described the elevator as very old, adding that Tuesday’s incident was not in the area where the power plant took down an emissions stack earlier this year. The Greenwood Avenue plant is owned by New Jersey-based NRG Energy.
The two men trapped in the elevator were contractors installing emission testing equipment on the Unit 7 stack, David Gaier, an NRG spokesman, said.
Personnel from fire departments in Libertyville, Countryside, Lincolnshire, Round Lake, Great Lakes, Gurnee, North Chicago and Lake Bluff all responded. DeRose said a crew from Lakeland Larsen Elevator in Waukegan also assisted.
