Tom Ewart Smith
AS darkness descended on mainland Spain during the widespread power outage on April 28, elevator technicians became emergency responders.
For Fain Ascensores, a Madrid-based lift company, the night turned into a scramble to prevent panic and ensure safety across the 60,000 lifts they maintain.
The blackout left buildings without electricity and, crucially, without functioning lifts.
READ MORE: Why were homes with solar panels installed also left without power during Spain’s great blackout?
As people found themselves stuck between floors, Fain’s team faced the challenge of saving stranded people while their communications network was crippled.
From their headquarters in Madrid, Fain’s managing director in Spain, Iñigo Egaña, oversaw operations as technicians fanned out across affected cities.
“At 11pm I was still receiving calls,” Egaña told El Mundo.
But as phone lines failed, the company was forced to go old-school – literally knocking on doors.
Technicians, each assigned to specific zones, began going building-to-building, checking lifts manually.
In some cities, residents arrived in person at Fain offices to ask for help, and staff would accompany them back to their buildings.
In others, local firefighters and police worked side-by-side with lift engineers to carry out checks and, where needed, rescues.
Speaking to El Mundo, Fain’s marketing director Gema Mediavilla, highlighted two specific examples: in Cadiz, their staff rode along with the fire brigade for the day; in Pamplona, a police officer teamed up with a technician for on-foot patrols.
Fain’s emergency phone lines were swamped, with nearly 150 calls on hold despite every operator being on duty.
Egaña suggests they received double the normal daily volume of service calls, which stands at 600, and they possibly dealt with 1,500.
All available personnel, regardless of department, were deployed to help restart lifts, with priority given to remote or smaller buildings, where someone could still be trapped unnoticed.
Supervisors stayed behind to coordinate operations, as the company raced to restore service and ensure no one was left inside a malfunctioning lift.
A major technical challenge lies in the circuit breaker.
“Most lifts are designed to resume normal operation once power is restored,” Egaña explained.
But if the breaker isn’t manually disconnected after an outage – especially in older models or those halted mid-ride – a technician is needed to safely reactivate the system.
Mediavilla has also issued a clear warning to the public: never try to carry out a rescue yourself.
“It’s incredibly dangerous for untrained people to try and free someone… If the lift restarts unexpectedly during an attempted rescue, you’ve got a real problem” she told El Mundo.
Fain’s response to the blackout offered a rare glimpse into a profession usually hidden from public view – one that, on this occasion, became essential to public safety.
