Firefighters helped rescue a family of four from a stuck lift in a Salford tower block, calming a panicking eight-year-old by asking her to draw pictures while they waited.
What started out as a routine Mother’s Day visit for the Gibbons family turned into a nightmare.
It was saved only by the quick thinking of Primrose Hill Primary schoolgirl Jasmine.
At around 3.30pm on Saturday, Jasmine, 8, her brother Tom, 15, mum Tracy and and dad Gary visited Tracy’s mum on the seventh floor of Malus Court on Belvedere Road, Pendleton.
Taking the lift back to the ground floor, the worst happened when it started to shudder and shake and ground to a halt between floors.
The family called the emergency response number in the lift – for Pendleton Together – but despite someone on the end of the phone picking up and saying they’d call back, the family say they heard nothing more.
By this time the children were starting to worry they were trapped in the rickety lift.
But then Jasmine had the bright idea of calling 999 to get Greater Manchester Fire to rescue them.
Blue Watch firefighters from Salford fire station were quickly at the scene and set about calming the children while they attempted a rescue.
Tracy told SalfordOnline.com: “Suddenly the lift came to a juddering halt and as you can imagine we all initially panicked.
“We phoned the Response Team on our mobile and they told us they would call us back in two minutes.
“They still hadn’t phoned back 10 minutes later and Jasmine was starting to get really frightened.
“She came up with the brainwave of phoning the fire brigade and when we explained that we had a young girl with us they were rapidly on the scene.”
“To calm Jasmine down they asked her to draw pictures for them which they would hang on the wall at their fire station which really helped all the family.
“They soon had the doors open and the lift was lowered to the ground floor were we stepped out and breathed a big sigh of relief.”
“I would hate to think what would have happened if an elderly person had been in our situation without a mobile phone and were in need of medication, they could have easily died.
“I can’t thank the fire crew enough for the way they dealt with the situation, I know they get some abuse from other people but without these men we could have been stuck there for hours, they are my family’s heroes,” said Tracy.
Jasmine now intends to visit Salford fire station on Liverpool Road and present her heroes with more artwork for them to pin on their walls as her way of saying thank you.
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