A person in Catonsville was rescued in dramatic fashion Wednesday after falling down a 30- to 40-foot well that had been covered with soil and grass. He had been there for nearly 24 hours when found on Wednesday afternoon.
The person was walking in the backyard of a residence when the grass gave way, revealing the hidden well and causing the person to fall three to four stories underground. The Baltimore County Fire Department said the person was taken to a hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
The Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department responded to a call for a confined space rescue, which means a person is trapped in a very small space, or is only accessible through such a space, like an underground vault, storage silo, storage tank, or sewer. These types of rescues require specialized technical training, and present potentially fatal hazards, as there is a limited window of time in which the rescue can be performed.
The entire rescue was caught on video by the SkyTeam 11 crew at WBAL TV. Helicopter Captain Roy Taylor hovered over the scene, and only spoke after the rescue was complete to say the man was conscious and talking but injured. The rescue took place around 2:50 p.m.
11 News reported that a nearby neighbor, Wesley Straffin, heard the man’s cries for help when he went into his backyard with his dogs. Straffin got his father from inside the house, and they followed the sound of the fallen man’s voice until they found the well and the man, who had been trapped since around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, the day before.
The Straffins gave him water and called 9-1-1 for help, and said the fire trucks came quickly. The man was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma with non-life-threatening injuries.
In the approximately 17-minute video, viewers can watch the fire departments and rescuers preparing the operation, and at the approximate 14:40 mark, the person is lifted out of the hole and placed on the stretcher. Taylor doesn’t begin to speak until around the 16-minute mark.
This article was updated to reflect information about how long man was trapped and how he was discovered.
