A 70-year-old man was rescued from a 30-foot-deep hole in his Aiea backyard Monday afternoon after suffering serious injuries in a fall. Firefighters believed the narrow shaft was an old cesspool, and crews spent time stabilizing the scene before pulling him to safety.
The Honolulu Fire Department responded to a home at 99-405 Waoala Place around 4:08 p.m. after receiving a report of a man trapped in a hole in his backyard, according to Hawaii News Now. Firefighters said the hole, believed to be an old cesspool, was approximately 30 feet deep and just 15 inches wide, making for an especially tight and treacherous rescue environment.
Despite the severity of the fall, the man was conscious and able to communicate with emergency personnel throughout the rescue, the station reported. Before anyone went near the opening, HFD's Rescue and Hazardous Materials teams monitored air conditions to make sure the confined space was safe to enter, a precaution common in old cesspool shafts where gas buildup can pose an additional danger.
Tripod and Rope System Used to Reach Him
Rescue crews used a tripod and rope rescue equipment to reach the man, provide medical assistance and pull him to safety, the outlet's report noted. Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said the man suffered serious injuries from the fall. Paramedics treated him at the scene before transporting him to an emergency room for further care, per the same account.
An Old, Widespread Problem Beneath Hawaii Properties
Cesspools like the one believed to be behind this fall are a long-standing feature of older Hawaii properties, built decades ago before modern sewage systems reached many neighborhoods. A Hawaii Department of Health webpage estimates there are approximately 88,000 cesspools statewide, with nearly 50,000 on the Big Island, almost 14,000 on Kauai, over 12,000 on Maui, over 11,000 on Oahu and over 1,400 on Molokai, according to the Hawaii Department of Health.
The environmental toll of these aging systems has drawn scrutiny well beyond individual backyard hazards. Hawaii Civil Beat reported that nearly 88,000 cesspools statewide dump some 53 million gallons of raw sewage into the ground each day. Those figures, gathered from 2009 to 2014 by the state Department of Health, the University of Hawaii and the Environmental Protection Agency, were still being cited by stakeholders when Civil Beat's report was published.
No further details were released about the man's condition following his transport to the hospital, and it remains unclear how the fall itself occurred. For now, the Aiea rescue stands as a stark reminder of the hidden risks that can lurk beneath Hawaii properties built over old, unmarked cesspools.
