Photo by pnzr242.

A pair of DCist readers have been kind enough to let us know what they saw during this morning’s incident at the Foggy Bottom Metro station, where an escalator violently collapsed, creating a gaping hole at its base.

DCist reader Kristina Salvey was on the escalator when it collapsed:

I was on the escalator when it collapsed, as well as about 15 other people. I was walking up the left side and was probably about 7 or 8 steps from the bottom, when the escalator shuddered, I heard several very loud bangs, and then I heard a woman yell. Everyone froze on the escalator only to look down and see a woman in a hole, where 3 to 4 of the bottom steps of the escalator appeared to sink down at least a foot to two feet. Two gentleman helped her out of the hole. Looking down from where I was standing, the escalator basically had a 4ft rift between the bottom of the escalator where the stairs were still intact to the actual entrance of the escalator. Everyone immediately began to get off the escalator and none of the metro employees seemed to react. If anything, only people at the station were reacting to what had occurred.

Nathan Humphrey kindly commented on our earlier post to share his experience:

I was actually at the base of the escalator when this happened. The escalator was in operation and I was just about to step on to it when the panel below my feet rose and I head a great crashing noise. I saw the steps collapse in on themselves at the bottom and the woman immediately in front of me fell on her back in the middle of the wreckage, but not, thank God, into the chasm. Another man and I immediately pulled her up and made sure she wasn’t injured. Shaken up and probably bruised, but not injured. Thank God I didn’t lose my balance–all I had to do was jump backwards. No one else was directly involved. The Metro employee had been shouting before the accident “Everybody keep to the left. There’s only one escalator in operation!” After I pulled the woman up, I said, “So much for everyone keeping left!” I decided there was nothing more for me to do and continued on my way, much shaken but also thankful that poor young woman wasn’t seriously injured!

Given these two accounts, it is pretty amazing that no one was seriously hurt. At this point, two escalators have resumed service at the entrance of the station.