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Subscribe to RSSAn Oregon woman is cut free after falling into a tiny space between two walls during her smoke break. Art Edwards reports.
An Oregon woman was freed after dangling for hours in a narrow space between two buildings, where she had just eight inches of wiggle room in the early-morning cold as rescue teams worked to cut a pathway out for her.
The incident, which occurred at a downtown Portland apartment complex, began at about 3:45 a.m. Wednesday, when the Portland Fire and Rescue Department received a call from a bystander who heard the woman yelling. The screams were coming from a tight space between the apartment building and a cinder block parking garage adjacent to the complex, said Lt. Damon Simmons, spokesman for Portland Fire and Rescue.
"Somehow, she was on top of this 20-foot-high wall and fell down between the walls," he said. "The space that was in between them, at the widest, was probably eight inches and it got narrower from there. She was wedged in. She fell down about 10 or 12 feet."
It wasn't clear why the woman was on top of the wall. Officials did not identify her; NBC affiliate KGW.com reported she was a 30-year-old who did not live in the apartment complex.
The woman was upright and conscious, but visibly agitated when firefighters arrived, Simmons said. Simply pulling her out wasn't an option because she was so embedded into the tiny space; breaking through the wall was the only solution, he said. Urban search and rescue teams, who normally respond to earthquakes and building collapses, were called in.
"They were going to cut the wall in front of her, and just pull it away from her. [But] that was creating a major dust issue," Simmons said. Instead, they cut out two "windows" in the wall on each side of her -- smaller holes that would give rescue teams some access to her without causing her to have to breathe in as much dust.
The "windows" also enabled paramedics, who had been pumping heat from the top of the wall, to get their radiators closer to her. Meanwhile, the woman's husband had also arrived, and was talking to her to help keep her calm.
Don Ryan / AP
Building maintenance man Josh Granados measures holes cut by rescuers to free a woman who fell part of the way down a 20-foot wall and got stuck between two buildings in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday.
"It's 36 degrees, and she's up against these two cold concrete walls. So they're pumping heat into her, and they're talking to her, and paramedics are assessing her. At that point they elongated one of the windows and turned it into a 'door,' and then they were able to use soap and basically grease her up if you, will and slide her out of that doorway," Simmons said.
Once she was freed, the woman -- shivering, but happy -- was taken to the hospital.
"She seemed really excited, obviously," Simmons said. "She seemed in good spirits. The hope is she'll be able to leave the hospital today."
The entire rescue took more than three hours and the coordination of more than 25 people, Simmons said.
Had the woman been stuck for longer, her situation could have been dire, Simmons said.
"In situations like that, where people are trapped and can't move around a lot, another concern is compartmentation syndrome," he said. "Your body is not able to circulate blood as well as it normally is with you moving around and walking around or lying down. And so you can almost get a blood poisoning: Your blood isn't getting cleaned like it should. And then when you're freed from that position, that blood starts circulating, and all those poisons start circulating. The rescue didn't take that long, so that didn't become an issue."
Leave a Comment:
Crackhoe on the prowl?
Strange, no one saying that she should be charged for her rescue?
Speaking of which, they could have asked for a professional carpenter. He could have had her out on thirty minutes, without the dust problem. One man/woman instead of twenty five.
She looks healthy enough.
Send that lady to a hospital and fast..not for cuts whatever..but to check out her BRAINS!!!
What is she doing on top of a wall between two buildings in the early AM ( pitch dark) and she didn't live there..possible a peeping MARY or drug nut?
IXLR8- I was thinkin' the same dang thing.
IWonder,
I'll say it. Unless this lady had a very good reason for being on that wall to begin with, she should be charged for her rescue.
Maybe while she is in the hospital a close relative will authorize them to pull the plug. She is obviously brain-dead.
That was my first thought too.... back in the old days....used to call them dopers and they would get stuck in the strangest places at the weirdest hours. That and the homeless find the smallest and strangest places to go to keep warm in the winter.
I watched this while getting ready for work this morning. When they pulled her out, my first thought was "crackhead".
Did she break her Obamaphone in the fall?
This dumbass should pay for the rescue, plus the cost to fix the wall. You can't fix stupid.
Don't forget the broken Obamaphone, she should have to pay for that also.
@ Alan, you are a prime example of that...
@IWonder "she's up against these two cold concrete walls." As a professional carpenter, I could assist any agency, (and I would) to help free someone where a wooden wall is concerned (carpentry) but I have to ask you what could I do to these two concrete walls with my carpentry tools?
Doesn't the witness say she heard the calls for help before she fell? It's hard to understand without subtitles.
Did she break her Obamaphone in the fall?
This idiot should pay for the rescue, plus the cost to fix the wall. You can't fix stupid.
There, is that better?
Also, whatever she was smoking is probably at the bottom of that wall. A cigarette or a joint. They should send some midget in there to get it.
I think you Obamaphone idiots should do a little research before spreading more fox lies, the program was started in 1985, that would put Reagan in the presidency and expanded in 2008 when Bush was president, you right wing nut jobs never quit
All it takes is a simple search to find the truth but we all know you're not interested in truth, just spreading lies and hatred, better hurry off to your next KKK meeting
other thing about "obamaphone"
the free part is 250 minutes only. Barebones for quick urgent things/emergencies..not for chatting. More minutes you have to pay. It's not a smartphone.
You do realize that basic cell phone plans are cheaper than a landline and that this phone is usually people's ONLY phone.
FYI having some sort of phone (now that there are no payphones around) to make Dr.s appts etc especially if you have kids, are elderly, or disabled (a large chunk of those who have them). Medicaid pays for healthcare if you can't make appts or can't call the doctor what is the point?
This totally reminded me of the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? where George Clooney says multiple times... " We're in a tight spot! "
LOL, sorry but I had to share.
Glad that she was rescued but gotta wonder about where she was and what she was doing...hope this one gets updated.
The video says that she went out for a smoke break and fell in. My guess is that she was either sitting on the edge of the wall or walking on it not thinking that shed actually fall in. They said its 8 inches at its widest so most people would think "if I fall my leg will probably get stuck" and not think of possibly sliding down 20 feet
Plumpty Dumpty hopped up on smack, Plumpty Dumpty fell in a crack, All the brave demos, and strong firemen. Got Plumpty's fat ass, above ground again.
If it was the middle of the night, I wonder if she even realized there was a gap there. She may have gone to lean against the higher wall, maybe to get out of the wind, and...OOPS!
Rose Colored Glasses,
"The video says that she went out for a smoke break and fell in."
It makes you wonder what she was smoking.
For those claiming she's fat/overweight, go look at 8 inches on a ruler. Most people's feet are longer, and their bodies couldn't even fit if they tried.
She is very lucky to be alive. Had the fall between the walls been tight enough to still have her fall the 10-12 feet, she is very lucky she had the "room" she had.
Had it been smaller, it could have compressed her chest enough to have suffocated her. An awful way to die, suffocation/asphyxia, but did anyone know she was even up there smoking? She could have just "disappeared" and never been seen or heard from again, until some time those buildings had been torn down for some reason.
Very very lucky woman. Was this enough for you to finally quit smoking?!
nope! just won't smoke on top of walls anymore!
She could only get there by jumping off a balcony 100 feet away and walking along a narrow wall...she was obviously up to no good....druggie or doper....
Sirlafalot,
Hilarious! LMAO... Always love reading your comments.
I like your post. At least someone doesn't prejudge this woman. I too wonder...it's appropriate
but I wouldn't go so far as calling her a crackhead as those do above. I wonder if they'd do that if she were White.
Laurali, if she were white, it'd actually be meth that people would be commenting on.
A wise man once said....I have never found, nor heard of, a cat skeleton in a tree. Leave her there and eventually she would lose the weight necessary for her removal.
A cat would have to have its claws dug in pretty good not to fall out of a tree after it passes out or dies from dehydration.
She doesn't sound mentally well- running around on top of a concrete wall and from the looks of it, without being dressed properly for the weather.
And why the heck were buildings constructed with just enough space between them for a person to get stuck?
Boundary issues. The buildings are separate from each other, and I'll bet one is built on the lot line. The other, newer one, was built with enough room to maneuver the building materials without hitting the other building.
I'd like to know how the rain water drains out from between them.
inmo, the way the buildings are built is common in urban settings.
Yet another foiled cat burglar...
Weird
Darwin loses again. Dammit!
My gosh- just how skinny is she?? Glad she's ok.(??)
yah if she were fatter she'd not had the problem! lol (EIGHT inches max width of space they say!)
I wouldn't lol. Most American wouldn't.
Looking at her as she was being taken/was coming out (I caught it walking by a TV earlier) she doens't look abnormally skinny...maybe she's also petit and I couldn't tell
Laurali- she could also have swelling from falling and being squashed for so long...
You can't fix stupid. I hope they charge her for the building repair cost.
The rescuers are going to fill her, and the hole in the wall, with caulk.
She would probably try to pay the bill with Food-Stamps.
Curiosity didn't kill the fat cat !!! Funny- After all that, she managed to keep her glasses on !!! ...Question: What the h*ll was she exploring or climbing to ??? Odds have it....its usually a 13yr old mischievous boy
That's Portland for you.. All the weird stuff happens there.
Interesting that you post that comment because regardless of the City/State, whenever something "weird" happens somewhere there is someone ready to post the same type of comment.
Joe, be careful, PoLand years ago decided that "Keep Portland Weird" was a "Kewl" thing. Portland is weird and contains many that are.
It is not a great place to live or visit for a normal person.. But it is Weird.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Portland_Weird
Alcohol.
Sure!
People are so concerned with calling her names or telling her how it is her fault. But if it is revealed later she was doing something normal, like sitting up there while smoking a cigarette, no one will come back and say they were wrong. They're here for the attention, and not to contribute comments to the story.
Find out what she was doing, and then take to calling her names if it was her fault.
Reiter,I agree with your post.People lack compassion for others and those are the ones I do not like to see serving on a jury in a court of law.Their minds are made up without knowing the facts or this lady.I'm glad that she was rescued no matter how it came to be that she fell and got stuck.
We do not lack compassion. We do expect adults to act like adults and exercise good sense.
Look at the pictures. She had no business messing about on top of those walls. Per the article, she did not live in the building.
Mama Gump was right.
Who gets to pay for the wall?
The insurance company. That's what they are for.
Insurance policies don't pay for everything.
I've seen a few bills for emergency rescues of civilians that managed to get stuck in odd places in urban areas, like open pipes in construction sites, or concrete ground vaults, roadside drains, collapsed structures, auto accidents, etc. Tens of thousands of dollars for out-of-pocket liabilities only partially covered by the policies, for such items like the repairs thereafter (in the case of something like this where they had to cut out sections of the brick wall, you'll have contractor's masonry expenses), the rescue team's bill and the ambulance ride (more expensive per mile than you can possibly imagine, ever after the insurance pays for a portion of it), not including the size of the "heart-stopping" medical bills you'll receive for your stay at the hospital or in their emergency ward.
If it's proven to be purely an accident I hope the total for the bills for the portions that insurance won't pay aren't financially catastrophic for her to burden.
Meanwhile, in another part of Portland:
http://www.kgw.com/home/Body-found-in-Peninsula-Park-186829531.html
The only reason I started reading this article to begin with was because I wondered how she got into such a predicament to begin with, and then I came across this:
"It wasn't clear why the woman was on top of the wall."
I could have saved myself the trouble of reading the article because it didn't tell me the only thing I wanted to know.
just sounds to alley catish..............
All I have to say is I can't wait to here her explanation. 15 minutes of fame starts now.
They weren't pumping heat INTO her, they were pumping heat in to her.
What is with your writing today? "and then they were able to use soap and basically grease her up if you, will and slide her out of that doorway,"..... WHY is there a comma between "you" and "will?" It should read, ".... grease her up, if you will, and slide her out...."
Idjuts!
Agree Watching-404403,
I believe it's time to shelve the term "if you will." We could also shelve "as it were," "issues" (rather than problems or concerns), "out of the box," "end of the day," "verbage" and several others.
It seems that some phrases catch on when they just shouldn't.
It's a money thing. idjuts make lower salaries.
The thing that surprises me most is that NBC has been ragged on for their pitiful proof reading and editing skills for so long and nothing has happened. It's rare that I come on here and don't find at least one comment on the poor grammar that is being used by these "professional" journalists. These complaints happen regularly and I know that staff sometimes read the comments, otherwise commentators wouldn't be collapsed or have their privileges revoked. Why do the people running NBC not expect more out of their staff?
Well, that's it. She could have been killed. Time to ban all walls. Otherwise that will be the next mass killing spree - waiting for people to fall between them.
Ignorant comment.
1) Reach down
2) Dislodge stick
3) Rediscover humor
Most women like to snoop, so to her it might actually have been a dream come true.
WTF kind of a thing is that to say? It isn't even true. Most gossip columnists are men.
OK she fell but was she living on a 2 story apartment with a balcany with no gaurd rail and sat on this wall that is a little higher then the balcany she got up and lost her balaced and fell
Frank - what are you on? I guess this has happened to you also. Sounds like a normal day for ya.
What in the world was she doing up there in the first place..she didn't live there and the other building was a garage!
A visitor on drugs only answer. In picture she looks stoned and ugly too!
mike- I'd like to see how YOU look after being jammed and freezing between two buildings for a few hours. I'm guessing you won't come out looking like a million bucks, either.
Allielcea - Mike's question which you avoided is valid. She doesn't live there, so why was she there? Can you intelligently comment on this? Or are you looking for change for a million bucks?
Bill- Well, I wasn't there and I don't know the woman, so I have no idea why she was there. However, as a public space, she had every right to be there. I could guess- Perhaps she IS visiting a friend or family member. Perhaps she lives nearby, but not that specific building. Perhaps she just decided on a whim that she wanted to go to the top of that building to see the view. Any of these are perfectly valid, and all of them are perfectly worthless for discovering why she was actually up there, or whether or not she was on drugs.
So here's MY valid question- Why do we automatically assume that someone caught in an unfortunate situation is either at fault or deserves what she got?
COULD she have been on drugs? Sure. Could she have been perfectly sober? Yup. An eight-inch gap is pretty easy to overlook in the middle of the night. (Now I suppose you'll ask what on Earth she was doing out so late, and I'll have to say that not everyone on Earth holds a 9-5 job. Perhaps she has a different schedule than you. No. No, that couldn't be...)
Also, I wasn't "avoiding" Mike's question. I was commenting on his baseless generalization.
Allielcea..take your meds..and STFU! :)
Was my opinion what she looked like..not the worlds.
K... and MY opinion is that YOUR opinion was both baseless and rude. The rest of what I said was responding to Bill, who apparently thinks no one should ever be anywhere they do not live.
i remember when colorado passed the weed bill legalizing weed. obama was asked about that and he said "WE HAVE BIGGER FISH TO FRY".... i call it deflecting.
well this petition will force his hand and he will have to make a decision.
i have started a petition at the whitehouse. gov
the petition is to have the federal government to enforce its own bans on marijuana and illegal immigration.
please go there and sign it.
http://wh.gov/Esqw
lets take away their weed !!!!! and the illegals that bring it into our country !!!!!!
help me get this to obama's desk....copy and paste, repost, add to your facebook, twitter
Go hijack someone else's post. Hijacker.
Well said, Kacky22.1 .....Wondered how long it would take before some jackass politicized this post! Now we know!
I'm guessing alcohol had something to do with this. Just saying.
I totally agree. Definitely alcohol or drugs!
What is wrong with people?
This story just isn't right.. There leaving something out.
Probably texting on her Obamaphone and didn't see the crack.
I just died, Oh my.. That is so true!
You people are morons, I think you mean Bushphone since he was president when the program was expanded to include cell phones, and it was originally created in 85, which would mean Reagan was president when it started. Bunch of idiots, keep spreading those fox lies, or did you get this one from rush or beck, either way you're all a bunch of right wing nut jobs
Sounds like we need an executive order to close the gaps between walls to keep people from hurting themselves. /sarcasm
We need an executive order to silence people that complain about executive orders and forget about how many BUSH did.
So now you want to take away my 1st amendment rights?
If she only had an assault weapon, Obama Obama Obama.