Got called to a hotel in Memphis where someone dropped a whole bucket of fried chicken down the shaft

Grease got into the guide rails and we spent 4 hours cleaning it out with solvent and rags. Anyone dealt with food in the hoistway before?

3 comments

3 Comments

clark.claire2mo ago

A whole bucket... how does that even happen. The cleanup sounds like a total nightmare, four hours is forever. I can't imagine the smell in that shaft after a while. Grease on the guide rails is just about the worst thing you could get in there.

kim_hart72mo ago

The bucket probably fell off a service cart on the top floor, that's how it happens. Honestly, @clark.claire, four hours isn't that long for a full shaft cleanup if the crew knows what they're doing. The smell would be bad but it's a contained space they can air out. Grease on the rails is a pain but it's not the absolute worst, at least it's not corrosive acid or something that eats through the metal. They have solvents for that. Sometimes these things just happen in a building.

lane.angela1mo agoMost Upvoted

The 2008 Marriott on 5th had a similar grease spill in their service elevator. Kim_hart7 is right about solvents, but they never get the smell out of the shaft lining. Two years later you could still catch a whiff of rancid shortening on humid days. It seeps into the concrete. The real cost isn't the four hour cleanup, it's the slow drop in property value because the building always smells like a bad diner.