Toronto police and friends of the 911 emergency response team have met to honour their colleague Tania Tiller as the service’s Comumnicator of the Year. Ms. Tiller was instrumental in getting police to the scene of a life and death crisis as two men faced certain drowning in a submerged elevator on Alliance Ave. last August. The elevator was stuck in the basement as Klever Freire and co-worker Gabriel Otrin desperately clawed at the ceiling of the unit to permit their cell phones to catch a signal. They had been unable to get the emergency hatch open. “As I was with him (Freire) on the phone, the water had risen to their waists,” recalled Tiller. “The call was sent right away and two officers were in the area. By the time they got there, the two men were standing on the top hand rail of the elevator. They couldn’t get the emergency hatch open and they were yelling and screaming for assistance.” Tiller kept police units and the Fire Department updated on the gravity of the situation until the officers arrived and started interacting with them. “The 9-1-1 operator was incredibly calm and level-headed when faced with our screams for help,” said Klever Freire in a letter to police.
