NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A man was trapped in a Midtown vault for nearly 10 hours Tuesday night, sending the FDNY scrambling to free him before the vault’s door automatically popped open Wednesday morning.
The wild ordeal started Tuesday evening inside the World Diamond Tower at 580 Fifth Ave., where the man—said to be a 23-year-old customer—was at a security company that serves Diamond District businesses.
The man was inside a safe deposit vault when someone shut the door on him, not realizing he was inside, police said.
The man called 911 around 8:45 p.m., and the FDNY rushed to the scene.
Firefighters started working around 9 p.m. to get the man out of the 20 foot by 40 foot vault.
“The process was started to breach the wall at the vault—about 30 inches or so of concrete,” FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief John Sarrocco said at a morning news conference.
“We got to the point where we got to the metal plating,” Sarrocco said. “We determined at that point, after 10 hours, we would hold off and see if the door would open automatically.”
And indeed they did—the door opened up around 6:15 a.m. and firefighters found the man in good condition inside. EMS checked him out as a precaution.
“Once it’s closed, it’s on a timing mechanism,” Sarrocco said. “The vault does not reopen until a certain amount of time passes.”
During the rescue, first responders were communicating with the man by phone and also watching him over a camera feed inside the vault. They were confident he had plenty of oxygen and wasn’t in immediate danger.
The man appeared to be in good shape when he emerged from the building at daybreak. He even ran from reporters who rushed to ask him questions.