Danielle Tammone was walking through her Bohemia backyard Thursday morning when the ground suddenly gave way beneath her, dropping her about eight feet into a narrow, water-filled hole. She was trapped for roughly 30 minutes before rescuers pulled her free — and it happened to be her 47th birthday.
The Ground Opened Without Warning
Tammone said she was simply walking across her yard when the earth collapsed under her feet, according to News 12 Long Island. “I was just down, down in a in an 8-foot hole with water and sod,” she said. She told CBS News New York she wasn't sure whether she had fallen into an old water well, a cesspool, or a sump, and that the stone around the opening crumbled further as she tried to climb out on her own.
Trapped underground, Tammone said she struggled to breathe and feared she might suffocate before help arrived, per the same CBS News New York account. Two neighbors, identified as Maggie and Christine, heard her cries for help and called 911. Neighbor Christine Chanowsky told the station's affiliate that the two initially thought Tammone was calling out from inside a shed before they realized she had fallen into the ground itself.
Firefighters, Police and a Ladder From Next Door
Responders including firefighters, police officers, ambulance crews, a special rescue unit and EMTs arrived and had to navigate mud, water and tangled roots to reach her, according to CBS News New York. Police officers ultimately retrieved a ladder from a nearby garage and used it to help Tammone climb to safety, News 12 reported. Chanowsky described the opening itself as deceptively small, saying, “The hole was maybe about 12 inches wide.”
Once she was out, Tammone said rescuers sang her happy birthday, and she said she was overcome with gratitude for the neighbors and crews who got her out. Accounts of her physical condition afterward differ: News 12 reported that Tammone said she escaped without any injuries, while Greater Long Island similarly reported she walked away unhurt. CBS News New York, however, reported that Tammone, a licensed physical therapist, sustained whiplash and pulled muscles and is now working on her own recovery.
Not the First Long Island Yard to Swallow Someone Whole
Two other Long Island incidents involved people falling into ground openings. In North Babylon, a 77-year-old woman fell four to six feet into a cesspool and wasn't found by her husband for two hours, according to ABC7 New York; rescuers there used a tripod and safety harness to hoist her out. In another Suffolk County incident, a sinkhole roughly six feet wide and six feet deep opened in a home's front yard and trapped two men and a woman, per FOX 5 New York, which reported that the cause of that collapse was unknown at the time. The cause of the hole that opened beneath Tammone has likewise not been established.
