Mobile home owner falls down 25-foot septic tank before crews hoist her to safety
A mobile home owner plummeted dozens of feet to the bottom of a septic tank before she was hoisted to safety Thursday when a California fire crew lowered a rescuer to retrieve her.
The Fontana woman, 40, fell so deep into the dark pit at the mobile park that while rescue workers could hear her, they couldn’t see her from the surface, officials said.
She plunged 25 feet when the ground beneath her quickly gave way while she walked in her yard, the San Bernardino County Fire said in a news release.
As crews figured out a way to pull her back up, they had to contend with the possibility of a cave-in because of the limited access and un-reinforced soil surrounding the dark hole, officials said.
“Our approach to this was a confined space rescue with a potential trench component because this septic tank was un-reinforced,” fire department spokesperson Eric Sherwin told KTLA.
“We had the potential to have debris slough from those walls and engulf both the victim and any entrants making access into that hole.”
A rope system was thrown together and a rescuer was lowered down, with his initial descent videotaped and posted on social media by the department.
The rescuer put a harness around the victim and the pair were then both pulled up from the tank around 11:45 a.m., authorities said.
The fire rescue also posted online the moment the woman was lifted back to the surface.
The woman suffered non-life threatening injuries to her lower body and was taken to the hospital.
The state housing board, which handles mobile home parks, investigated the area and fixed the septic tank access.
No evacuations of any homes were required.
