A firefighter was lowered down a 200-foot elevator shaft Wednesday — six times the distance of any practice run — to help rescue four men trapped in an elevator at a Brooklyn Con Edison plant.
Firefighter James Dowdell, 32, was lowered to the top of the elevator inside the Hudson Ave. building in Vinegar Hill about 7:40 a.m. after the elevator stopped 200 feet below street level.
The elevator carrying a Con Edison employee and three contractors was stuck between floors, authorities said. “Members of Squad 1 tried to access the bottom of (the elevator) but it wasn’t easily accessible,” said Dowdell, an 11-year veteran of the FDNY. “We talked about it and realized that the best way to do this was send a member down.”