Chargers personnel rescued from Dallas elevator ahead of preseason game vs Cowboys

For the second time in five days, firefighters and rescue personnel are characters in a Cowboys news story. This time, though, it’s the team’s upcoming opponent on the other end of a first-responder call.

Fifteen members of the Los Angeles Chargers’ travel party- including several players- had to be rescued from a stuck hotel elevator in Dallas on Friday night, just hours before their preseason finale against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.

A Dallas Fire-Rescue team helped lift the individuals one by one through a ceiling panel after the car became stuck somewhere between the third and fifteenth floors of The Westin on Main Street in downtown Dallas. An elevator technician attempted unsuccessfully to get the elevator working before the fire department was dispatched.

Upon their arrival, DFR’s Urban Search and Rescue team- according to WFAA’s Matt Howerton- used a working elevator “as a ferry” to transfer the trapped individuals to safety.

But the rescue didn’t come quickly, or without some drama. Per Jaime Maggio, a reporter covering the Chargers preseason, firefighters first tried to breach the door of the inoperable elevator car using crowbars. Only “after two-plus hours,” Maggio said, did they change tactics and move inside the elevator shaft to access the car via its ceiling panel.

It was not immediately known which Chargers players or personnel were involved, though running back Jaret Patterson did make a Instagram post from inside the elevator car.

The Chargers thanked Dallas Fire-Rescue in a social media post after the incident, and head coach Jim Harbaugh reportedly invited the rescue personnel to the eat in the team meal room afterward.