The person killed on Thursday during an elevator malfunction at a former Colorado gold mine – which left 23 stranded underground – worked as a tour guide at the site, authorities said.
Authorities identified 46-year-old Patrick Weier of Victor, Colorado, as the victim who died. Weier’s survivors include a seven-year-old son, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Weier was preparing to become a volunteer firefighter in his town of about 400, the newspaper reported. He had also previously worn the costume of the Chicago Cubs baseball team’s Billy Cub mascot, posing for pictures with fans outside Wrigley Field, CBS News reported.
“Everybody will be in mourning when they realize who it is,” Victor’s mayor, Barbara Manning, reportedly said.
The local sheriff, Jason Mikesell, said he did not know specifically what happened – but he thought Weier “was attempting to make everybody safe”, ABC News reported.
“All I know is that he was a good man, and he loved his job,” Mikesell said at a news briefing.
“This is a county tragedy,” a local government commissioner, Dan Williams, was quoted as saying by the Gazette. “This is a Colorado tragedy.”
Weier’s death unfolded at about 12pm local time at Mollie Kathleen goldmine. The site near Cripple Creek, Colorado, which opened in the 19th century as a mine but closed in the 1960s, now offers tours.
Participants take an elevator 1,000ft down the mine shaft. The trip takes approximately two minutes, with the tour lasting about an hour.
“We know that at 500ft is where the issue occurred,” Mikesell told reporters. “We know that there was some type of an incident with the doors, and at that point, something went wrong.
“Currently we don’t know what happened at 500ft to cause this.”
Authorities said that the lift operator at the top of the shaft noticed there was a problem with the elevator when 11 people were riding it. After they were brought back to the main level, authorities realized that Weier was killed and four other adults injured, the Gazette reported. Mikesell said the elevator door was broken – and that Weier died as a result of mechanical issues with the lift rather than because of a medical emergency, according to the Associated Press.
Another group of 12 – including 11 visitors and one guide – remained at the bottom after the elevator malfunctioned. Officials told the group that they would be taken back to the main level once they deemed the elevator safe to ride. They were stranded about seven hours.
Technicians repaired the elevator at 500ft so as to rescue those trapped at the bottom of the mine shaft. They inspected the cables, and then tested the lift by sending it to the bottom as well as bringing it back, ABC News said.
The mine’s owner traveled with inspectors to check that the elevator could travel safely. The owner’s son worked the hoist system to lower the lift, Mikesell reportedly said.
“Without their help, we may not have been able to get people up out of there,” Mikesell remarked, describing them as “heroes”.
When the elevator was deemed safe, authorities brought those stranded back to the surface four at a time, officials said.
