Woman still stuck in apartment after elevator falls 14 floors

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A woman who was inside an elevator while it fell several stories says she is still stuck.

“What was going through my mind was, ‘I’m going to die,’” Eve Burrus told WAVE 3 News.

It was Aug. 6 when she entered the elevator on the 14th floor, where she lives at the St. Catherine Court Apartments, an public housing complex. The complex is managed by the Louisville Housing Authority.

She said when she got into the elevator, it bounced twice.

“It went into a free fall,” she said. “It just started falling rapidly.

"It flung back up to the 16th floor where I was lodged between the 16th floor and the roof," she continued.

She said it took firefighters an hour to get her out. Burrus said she banged her head and blacked out. She said she had bruises all over her body.

Still, she says, she was lucky.

State inspectors came the next day and red-tagged the elevator. They found a major infraction they described as a mechanical malfunction in the breaking system.

Burrus’s story doesn't end there.

She asked the Louisville Metro Housing Authority to move her somewhere where she no longer has to step into an elevator.

Burrus tried to climb the 14 flights of stairs, but said it was too taxing. She is 63 years old.

Nearly one month after the incident, she got a notice from the Authority. It authorized her move, but indicated she’d be placed on a waiting list. The letter indicates there is no set date for when the move might take place.

“I almost lost my life and they’re telling me they’re going to put me on a list like everybody else,” she said.

WAVE 3 News spoke to Lisa Osanka, the Housing Authority Director, who said she couldn’t comment because of pending litigation. She did say in general terms there are no set timeframes for relocations and that they’re done on an individual basis.

“It was so traumatic,” Burrus said. “I won’t ever forget this. It was terrible.”

We found out the elevators had been inspected by state officials in February 2018. At that time, they found no major infractions.

By law, the elevators have to be inspected once a year.

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