Baltimore County responders rescue woman from storm drain
Baltimore County rescuers pulled a woman from a storm drain in Rosedale on Saturday afternoon, where fire officials said she was trapped some 25 feet below.
About two hours after being dispatched, the rescuers got the woman to safety and took her to a hospital with injuries that weren’t life-threatening, said Lt. Travis Francis, Baltimore County Fire Department spokesperson.
It’s unclear to firefighters how she ended up in the storm drain in the 9200 block of Oswald Way, near the leasing office of The Apartments at Canterbury complex.
“She had entered on her own,” Francis said. He did not know the woman’s age or where she lived.
A woman in the apartment leasing office declined to answer questions Saturday.
Rescue crews had rushed in around 12:24 p.m. to an address in that block after receiving a call about a person stuck in a storm drain, Francis said.
Francis said the responders were able to communicate with the woman, though it took some time to devise a plan to enter the storm drain and reach her. Rescuers entered the storm drain system from five different locations, and the woman “did attempt to elude the rescuers,” Francis said.
Members of the county’s tactical rescue team used a lift operation to remove her, he said.
About 40 rescuers, including emergency medical technicians and members of the specialized confined-space rescue team and the hazmat team, responded to the scene.
Francis said it’s protocol for the fire department to dispatch the hazmat team anytime the department is dealing with a confined-space rescue because it’s difficult to know the oxygen level or whether there are gases present.
After setting up for about 40 minutes, the department said rescuers had gone into the storm drain and were “attempting to locate” the woman.
They reached the woman around 1:50 p.m. and removed her from the drain around 2:15 p.m., Francis said.