A woman has died after getting stuck in a storm drain near the border of San Diego and Poway.
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Per a report by NBC 7, Yafang Zhou, 59, was found by the San Diego Fire Department on Monday. They located her in an underground storm drain system. Zhou was trapped roughly 10 feet underground and under a manhole cover before the Fire Department rescued her. Emergency Services reportedly managed to free her, but she died in Palomar Medical Center less than two hours later. Authorities have not disclosed her cause of death.
The outlet explains that Zhou had been missing since March 25. Her family reported her missing to authorities on April 3. Investigators heard what they believed were' human sounds' coming from underground. They traced the noises to a small manhole. Emergency Services reportedly used a tripod with a rope and pulley system to drag her out.
Authorities Almost Called The Bomb Squad To Access The Storm Drain
Before they located the manhole, rescue teams were reportedly crawling through 3-foot wide storm drains as part of the search effort. Workers reportedly had to be periodically pulled from the drain system for their own safety. Per the Daily Mail, firefighters were concerned about limited oxygen and potentially harmful gases in the confined spaces. They were also concerned about potential wildlife hiding in the drain system. The fire brigade also reportedly said that the rescue effort took a while because they weren't sure where Zhou was at first.
Emergency Services were in the process of calling in the bomb squad before they located the manhole.
In an interview, San Diego Fire-Rescue battalion chief Erik Windsor said, "It is very possible from what I'm hearing, that she's been there for days. And it's very unusual. [It's] Obviously not a place that is designed for human inhabitants." He also explained that Emergency Services didn't know how she got there. "So, what she was doing there, what drove her in there, how she came to be in there, we're unclear," he added.
Firefighters believe Zhou may have been underground for up to a week. NBC also says that Emergency Services would not reveal what led them to the specific manhole.
