Boy Breaks Leg in Bronx Elevator Nightmare

Paramedics, the FDNY, and panicked neighbors worked together to save a 7-year-old boy from falling to his death in a Bronx building's elevator shaft yesterday. Milton Apolinaris and his younger brother were on their way to play with a friend when the elevator at 710 Hunts Point Avenue stalled between the third and fourth floors. According to the Post, the boy managed to pry the doors up but when he tried to climb out he got his foot stuck between the floor and the elevator car. One resident tells the Daily News, "He was outside the elevator, but upside down in the shaft. His feet were on the fourth floor and his body was on the third."

Channel 7 reports that neighbors helped to prevent the elevator from moving until firefighters could get to the scene, at which point they formed a human chain to rescue the boy. Lt. Raymond Arcos/Engine 94 says, "I told my firemen to grab our belts, so that we wouldn't fall into the shaft—and that none of the pedestrians tried to push us in while trying to help." Paramedic Moses Nelson explains to the Post that his main objective was to calm the terrified boy, "I just kept talking to him because the more scared he got, the more he moved."

Apolinaris was rushed to the hospital with a broken leg. The News notes that the six-story building has been cited nine times since 1991 for failing to maintain the elevator, and the chronically malfunctioning elevators in some NYC buildings have sparked considerable protest because of incidents like this. And here's that classic time-elapse video of one man's crazy 41 hour stay in an elevator.