Leduc firefighters have been helping elderly and infirm residents of the Summit Square apartment, who have been stranded without a working elevator for a month.Leduc firefighters have been helping elderly and infirm residents of the Summit Square apartment, who have been stranded without a working elevator for a month. (CBC)Frustration is reaching new heights for elderly residents stranded for a month without a working elevator in a Leduc apartment building.

One of two elevators at the nine-storey Summit Square apartment building was running on Wednesday, a month after service was lost, but had broken down again before the end of the day.

That was bad news for Marilyn Shepley.

"There's 160 steps from the main door to [my apartment]," said Shepley, who faces the prospect of eight flights of stairs when ever she needs to go out.

When the elevator began working on Wednesday, Shepley used the opportunity to get her husband, who has been stranded in the apartment due to health problems, outside for the first time in weeks.

Hands tied by codes

Municipal Affairs Minister Hector GoudreauMunicipal Affairs Minister Hector Goudreau There's not much the provincial government can do to aid residents of the Summit Square apartment building, Minister of Municipal Affairs Hector Goudreau says.

"The building was built before other codes were set in place and our codes are not retroactive," Goudreau said Thursday.

Goudreau said his staff would work with the City of Leduc to at least "assure there’s a fire safety plan in place, to assure that there’s an evacuation plan."

Goudreau said officials might be able to use health issues to force speedier action, "but at this stage I would have to review that and see what may or may not be available to us in terms of any type of enforcement."

"There’s no legislation at present that can force [landlords] to do something because as I reiterate, the building was built before the new codes came into place."

But when they returned from their outing, the elevator was out of service again.

"I can't say what went through my mind when I saw that sign, because it is not printable," Shepley said.

Emergency workers carried Shepley's husband back to his apartment.

"We're stuck," Shepley said. "We're prisoners — my husband's a prisoner."

Two weeks ago Leduc fire Chief Ernie Polsom ordered the company to fix both elevators.

But Polsom says current laws are inadequate to deal with the problem, "leaving lovely folks like those people at Summit Square in the lurch and municipal officials on the hook to try and figure out some sort of remedy."

"You would think there would be some onus on the building owner to maintain those systems — at least the level of service they were when they were granted their occupancy permits," he said.

"But there's no onus on him to maintain it in any way, shape or form."

Polsom said he hoped a repair crew could fix the elevator on Thursday, but added it needs to be replaced. The building has a second elevator as well, but that one broke down in 2007.

The fire department is offering assistance to residents who need help leaving their apartment for prescriptions or medical appointments.

The building's owner, Hans Krahn, has blamed the delayed repairs on difficulty finding replacement parts.