When we first heard the reports on the fire department scanner frequencies that someone was trapped in a storm drain 10 feet under the ground in Poway, and then learning that she had been in there for several days after being reported as missing, the first instinct when you’re in the news business, that this story would not turn out well.
But as you’ve been hearing, what happened did turn out to include a very happy, and somewhat incredible, ending.
While some of the details about how it happened are still coming out, what firefighters did to find her and save her will be the story we may most remember about what happened.
As one of the San Diego Fire Rescue Battalion Chief put it, “We don’t take putting people, rescuers into confined spaces lightly at all.”
In other words, as the Union Tribune described it, “Tight spots like storm drains can be fraught with danger, from dangerous gases to wild animals.”
And yet these first responders responded the way they do, to every incident, every day.
Finding the woman and saving her life may have been a miracle, but what the firefighters did, risking their own safety, to save another, is something we have come to expect.
And that’s no miracle, that’s just the way they are.
(Photo reporting partner 10 News)
