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Man pulled from burning lift

May 12, 2008 | Associated Press | The Austrailian

Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) crews were called to the Mercure Hotel in Bathurst Street about 8pm (AEST) yesterday.

They prised open the ground floor lift doors, using hydraulic tools normally used at road accidents and found the burning lift stuck just below the fourth floor, TFS Senior Station Officer Stephen Walkley said.

Smoke was filling the lift shaft and firefighters could hear cries for help from the man, a hotel worker, inside the lift, he said.

"Flames were visible around the exterior of the elevator carriage and a considerable amount of smoke was also issuing from the fire," he said.

"This smoke would eventually fill the fourth and fifth floors of the hotel before the fire was extinguished."

The man told firefighters the flames were beginning to burn through the walls of the lift carriage.

Jets of water from firefighters on the ground floor damped down the flames while others worked from above to free the man.

"It was extremely fortunate that the fire service now (possesses) modern and powerful rescue equipment that made it possible for firefighters to force open the elevator doors on the fourth floor, which gave access to the stuck elevator carriage," Mr Walkley said.

"In a very difficult situation, fire crews were then able to prise open the internal doors of the elevator carriage just sufficiently for the very shaken hotel employee to crawl out to safety."

The man was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

Once they got access to the lift, fire crews quickly extinguished the blaze.

Five fire trucks and 20 brigade members from Hobart, Glenorchy, Clarence and Bridgewater attended.

The Tasmania Fire Service will investigate the cause of the fire today.