3 rescued from Detroit office building with no power

The Renaissance Center lost power for a few minutes Wednesday evening.  Power was also lost at the Madden office building at 150 West Jefferson, the Millender Center and the Courtyard Marriott.

In less than seven minutes, a series of backup power generators were humming, providing power to the Renaissance Center, the Millender Center and the Courtyard Marriott hotel.  However, the Renaissance Center's Tower 400 remained in the dark.  No one was injured or trapped.

Across Jefferson Avenue, the office high rise known as the Madden Building also remained without power.  A 9-1-1 call reported that eleven people on upper floors had no elevator service.  Eight of the eleven simply walked down the stairs, but three people required rescue by Detroit Fire and EMS.

"Due to either age or medical condition, they just required some assistance in getting out.  They were brought down and assisted to the parking structure.  No one required EMS transport," said Lieutenant John Sablowski.

DTE said a faulty electric cable is to blame.

Detroit firefighters hustled up 22 floors to bring three people down from 150 West Jefferson.

"EMS personnel and firefighters are tired.  22 stories up, 22 stories down, we had some crews actually make two trips," Sablowski said.

As of Thursday morning, several buildings downtown remained without power. We'll continue to update the status throughout the morning.