A woman and a child were rescued by firefighters from a
15-foot-deep sinkhole in the pouring rain after it swallowed a pickup truck and
a car. The sinkhole opened up on Iverson Road south of Zaltana Street, where
Iverson runs just underneath the 118 Freeway, at around 7.20 pm Monday, as the
latest series of storms battered the state.
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First, a car fell into the opening, then a pickup truck.
Two people in the truck got themselves out, but two more were trapped in the
car, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported. An “immediate rescue to save
their lives” was needed as the unstable road continued to collapse and flood,
firefighters said.
Firefighters used a ladder over the hole and dropped a crew
member down as they stabilized the vehicles as much as possible, then rescued
the two people, who sustained minor injuries.
According to authorities’ estimates, the sinkhole was
around 15 feet deep Monday night, but the sinkhole appeared to grow in size
overnight. The car had trapped below the pickup truck and the street
remains closed, reported KABC.
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“More water has been flowing down from the street and
was filling the hole, and as you can see, there’s a part of the street itself
that’s a large chunk of debris that’s already separated and cracked, and the
way this has gone is this car is continuing to sink and roll,” said LAFD
Battalion Chief Andrew Wordin.
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“We got to the point where we had to get these folks
out of this car, so we went with a high-angle rescue and lowered a rescuer into
the side door,” said Wordin.
“The road is completely compromised and un-passable to
traffic, nor is it able to support emergency vehicles,” firefighters said
Monday night. “The large sinkhole is fully cutting across the southbound
lane of Iverson Road. The entire road is compromised,” it added.
Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in Los Angeles. An
atmospheric river has battered California with a series of intense storms
bringing high winds and heavy rain. The storms have killed at least 14 people,
downed trees, flooded streets, forced evacuations, and cut power to tens of
thousands of people in recent days.
