People trapped in elevators during power outage in Quincy By Chris Szechenyi, Boston.com Staff, 06/07/00

About 20 persons were trapped in elevators during the power outage in Quincy this afternoon, according to Joe Walsh, the city's deputy fire chief.

The outage also caused some fender benders, but Walsh said the evening commute should be normal, now that power has been restored.

About 8,000 customers lost electricity this afternoon after an equipment failure occurred at a Massachusetts Electric Co. substation at 2:43 p.m.

People were trapped in high rises and in residential buildings, as well as the Norfolk County Courthouse.

Some of the people trapped were also senior citizens, Walsh said. "We fished several people out of elevators," he said.

Problems with elevators were reported at a high-rise at 45 Brackett St., a residential building at 40 Greenleaf St., and a high-rise at 1515 Hancock St.

Electric was restored to the entire city of Quincy at 4:35 p.m., according to Karen Berardino, a spokeswoman for Mass. Electric.

Berardino said she didn't know what caused the equipment failure. The substation is on Field Street.

She said the power outage affected all of Quincy, except the northern part of the city.

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/reporters/07/quincy.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 07, 2000