In this elevator rescue training video, instructor Geoff Davis discusses how to use an elevator pole to manually operate the elevator rollers in order to open the hoistway door when an elevator door key is not available during an elevator rescue emergency.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

We try to trick those rollers into thinking that the car is there and that, uh, we can get past the mechanism and open the door.

All we’re looking to do with this is to be able to reach up and manually operate the rollers to open the hoistway door.

That hook on the end, like we talked about, looks very much like the hook on the end of a Slim Jim.

And, uh, right there is the connection in the middle.

This is what poling looks like. Here we have the two rollers on the door that pole’s coming across, catching that roller and using it to open the door.

You push or pull the rollers to disengage a lock.  Again, much like turning the key, it’s not the same every time.

It might be the left roller up, it might be the right roller away from the left roller. Then once you get the hook to where it needs to be, you’re going to have to experiment a little bit in directions to try to find the right way to open it. 

Always use full protection when working in an open hoist way.

Instructor Tip

Always use full protection when working in an open hoist way.

There’s no other place where we’re telling people, ‘Hey, it goes down on this ledge, it has an eight story fall in front of it, and not tie them off with full protection.’

If we are trying to stick this in to go across to another elevator or up or down. If you lead with the back end of it away from where you’re trying to go, it’s easier to get this in.

Instead, I start over here,  take that, uh, back into this, put it down or put it across if I have the room, work it all the way down until I can get this in the door, stick this in the door, and then push back up. It’s going to be a lot easier to do it that way. Does that make sense?