Colorado Springs Fire Department rescues woman from nearly 15 foot hole, after ground caves in
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD) along with Fort Carson Fire units helped rescue a woman from a nearly 15 foot hole, after the ground collapsed beneath her Wednesday afternoon.
The woman only suffered some minor injures, after fire crews say that she was simply walking in her yard, when the ground collapsed and formed a 10 to 15 foot hole in what's believed to be an old well.
It left her trapped, and led to family calling 9-1-1 shortly before 1:30 p.m. CSFD was able to respond in just three minutes, but required the help of Fort Carson's Heavy Rescue Unit as the department's own high-angle rescue team was on a practice mission at the Arkansas River.
In total it took crews about an hour to assess the narrow hole, which they had to ensure wouldn't collapse any further, before lowering a firefighter down to make sure the woman was alright, and could be secured into a harness.
By 2:32 p.m. she was lifted out, with only minor injuries to her lower body.
"At our headquarter building. We have a lot of area in the back and we'll have bulldozer come out and cut holes, and that's when our Fort Carson crews come out, our CSFD crews come out, and they're really training for those trench rescues." explained Ashley Franco, a spokesperson with CSFD.
This marks the second straight day that Colorado Springs Fire had to make a unique technical rescue, after they saved a man who was trapped within a garbage truck early Tuesday morning.
"Like we said, we train for these things and having two of them, you know, in two days is pretty rare for us, but we're training for it. We're going to be out here. we're going to be making sure that we can save our community." said Franco.
