Local News in Brief : Officials Tell of Youth’s Fatal Flight From Stalled Elevator

A 15-year-old boy, crushed to death after he climbed through the roof of a stalled elevator in a Panorama City department store, had been trapped in the elevator only a few minutes, Los Angeles fire officials said Monday.

Durrell A. Beazer “might have been influenced by what he saw on TV shows, where people walk on top of elevators, even slide down cables, and never get hurt,” said Assistant Fire Chief Jack Bennett.

After climbing through the roof of the Broadway department store elevator Friday afternoon, the Pacoima youth walked along a steel beam into an adjacent elevator shaft, a store spokesman said. He was crushed by descending counterweights from an adjacent elevator that started moving unexpectedly.

Counterweights, which Bennett estimated exceed 1,000 pounds, are used to balance elevators.

Store officials said they were in voice contact with Beazer and two companions, Nicolette Burtley and Marurico Ortiz, both 15, when Beazer, without warning, climbed through the elevator roof.

Burtley and Ortiz, who did not try to climb out, were eventually removed by firemen, Bennett said.

The assistant chief said the death occurred before fire crews arrived. He said Fire Department procedure for a stalled elevator is to shut off power to all elevators, then summon factory maintenance crews to move the elevators.