A missing woman who became stuck in a tiny confined space under a manhole cover has died hours after she was rescued by firefighters.
Yafang Zhou was reported missing on April 3 after she was last seen at around midnight on March 25 in downtown San Diego, California, triggering a major police search. The San Diego Police Department had classed the 59-year-old as “at risk” in a public appeal, asking people who may have information to come forward last week. She wasn’t found for several days, with police eventually recovering the woman on April 3 after finding her in a storm drain in the San Diego city of Poway. She was brought back to the surface but died just hours later.
Local media reported that the search for Ms Zhou brought investigators tracking her phone ping to the 14600 block of Beeler Canyon Road in southern Poway, where they heard a woman’s voice coming from underneath a manhole cover. Lieutenant Jonathan Dungan said it was unclear how she had become stuck, and San Diego Fire Department Battalion (SCPD) Chief Erik Windsor added police entered the sewage system to retrieve her.
He said: “Units entered into the sewage system into what we call a confined space. They went through all the processes to permit it to make a safe entry, and then firefighters were literally inside the sewage or storm drain, crawling on their stomachs to try and locate the victim.
“Firefighters were opening manhole covers all along the storm drain system, and then they were eventually able to finally locate here in an area uphill from where we had been searching, at which point they reestablished the rescue efforts, built a system of ropes and pulleys, and lowered personnel down into the storm drain.”
Chief Windsor added that firefighters were “worried about all sorts of gases, limited oxygen, what’s going on in the confined space that are environmentally dangerous to them”.
He said firefighters also braved wild animals, and that it was “very amazing” they were able to remove her from the space at all.
He said: “It is very amazing that we were able to extricate her and get her going to the hospital.” She was taken to Palomar Medical Center in serious condition, but medics were unable to save her despite their best efforts. Investigators are yet to conclude what happened to Ms Zhou, who failed to return home after leaving her car early on the morning on March 25.
Her car and some of her scattered belongings were found near the Beeler Canyon trailhead on around April 2, and her husband made a missing persons report the following day after being made aware of the situation.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office is yet to provide a cause of death for Ms Zhou.
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