🚒 190 feet. That's how far two Atlantic City firefighters descended on ropes inside a blind elevator shaft at the Borgata — to reach two women who had no other way out.

🚒 190 feet. That's how far two Atlantic City firefighters descended on ropes inside a blind elevator shaft at the Borgata — to reach two women who had no other way out.

A week ago tonight, on Thursday, October 22, crews were dispatched to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa at about 5:23 PM for an elevator entrapment. What they found was the kind of call firefighters train for and hope never comes: an elevator stuck in a blind shaft, with no way to reach it from the floors around it.

So Rescue 1, Ladder 1 and Engine 2 built a rope system. Firefighters Anthony Phillips and Brian Berrio went down — about 190 feet — reached the women, secured them one at a time, and crews hoisted them up the shaft to safety. The second woman was out at 8:19 PM. The last firefighter climbed out at 8:22 PM. Nearly three hours, start to finish.

Deputy Chief Duane Brock ran the operation, and Captain Jeffrey Jenkins coordinated the rescue plan. Chief Scott Evans put it plainly afterward: "Rappelling 200 feet down an open, blind elevator shaft is one of the most demanding scenarios a firefighter can face."

And the best part of the whole story: nobody was hurt. Not the women, not one firefighter. The two women walked away smiling — that's them in the photo, standing with the firefighters who brought them up.

We missed this one when it happened last week, and a rescue like this deserves its moment. Hats off to the Atlantic City Fire Department.

(Sources: City of Atlantic City / Atlantic City Fire Department release via Public Safety PIO Matt Duffy; Press of Atlantic City, October 2026. Photo: City of Atlantic City.)

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