Two students were trapped in an elevator of Couch Center Wednesday morning because of a power outage.

At 5:20 a.m., a power outage occurred in campus housing, a few academic buildings, and the Oklahoma Memorial Union, OU Physical Plant spokeswoman Amanda Hearn stated in an e-mail. The Physical Plant experienced an electrical cable fault in OU’s underground utility system, and crews restored power to campus housing by approximately 7:20 a.m., she stated.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate the understanding of the OU community,” Hearn stated. “Power outages are uncommon, but our system may occasionally experience a fault. When that happens, we just do our best to return power to campus as soon and safely as possible.”

Hearn stated when the electricity went out, two students were trapped in an elevator in Couch Center.

Allen Hicks, University College freshman, was on the first floor of Couch Center and assisted in helping the two students get out of the elevator.

“I was on [the 10th floor] when the power went out,” Hicks said. “I wasn’t sure what was going on at the time so I thought that it’d be safe if I went down to the first floor just in case there was an emergency.”

Hicks said when arrived on the first floor, he saw an OU employee trying to open the doors to the elevator.

“We were told that there was an emergency device we could trigger to open the doors, so we got a wire hanger and tried to active the device that would open the doors,” Hicks said.

He said he was in the process of opening the doors when an OU Police Department officer made them stop and wait for the fire department.

“We almost had it figured out, but the police officer was worried we were going to damage the door,” Hicks said. “If they thought we were going to damage the door, then I can only imagine how the officer felt when the fire department took a crowbar to the door.”

Hicks said the Norman Fire Department was about to use the Jaws of Life to open the door when physical plant employees showed up with a metal wire to trigger the emergency switch that would open the door.

“They were doing the exact same thing we were doing at first, but only they were going from right to left instead of left to right,” Hicks said.

Hicks said the two students appeared to be somewhat shaken up but not totally freaked out.

“When people get stuck in an elevator, there are emergency phones available for them to use,” said Lauren Royston, OU Housing and Food Services spokeswoman.

Royston said Housing and Food worked to notify other OU departments that a power outage had occurred, in case some students’ alarms were affected by the outage.

“When we do have outages, we try to get in contact with Resident Life,” Royston said. “Resident Life will reach out to University College, and they will notify certain professors that an outage has occurred and some students may not be present in class.”

Royston said she had not heard of many students who were affected by the outage.