Officials say the woman, who reportedly fell into the sewage pit while trimming limbs, had been trapped for more than five hours.
ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. — A person was rescued from a 16-foot well complete with snakes, in Orangeburg County Wednesday afternoon, according to the Orangeburg County Fire District.
Fire officials responded to the call from her husband around 3:30p.m. in the afternoon worried his wife had went missing.
“It looked like she was possibly in the yard trimming some tress & tree limbs were not 100% sure we didn’t get a chance to talk to her,” said Jeremy Jeffcoat, training chief at Orangeburg Fire District.
“After we got her out, we were sure to get her to the EMS for medical attention.”
When they arrived, crews found a woman in a 16-foot well that had been converted to a sewage pit. Officials say the woman, who reportedly fell in while trimming limbs, had been trapped in the pit for more than five hours.
“We know that due to the structure of the well that we would have to set up a rope system to haul her out and from the time we put our rescuer in the hole until the time we got the patient out it was about 25 minutes.”
The rescue went smoothly as a crew member was lowered by rope to carry the woman back out…. except for the two snakes that made an appearance
“The snakes were luckily on the outside as we were lowering out responder down we had to move a piece of concrete we noticed we had two passengers that wanted to get in but we were able to remove them,” Jeffcoat added.
Rescue crews conducted atmospheric monitoring while ventilating the well with fresh air. Using a tripod and rope rigging, a rescuer was carefully lowered into the well to secure the woman and raise her to safety.
Once removed, officials say the woman was decontaminated and transferred to EMS for further assessment.
Her condition is stable at this time – but she did suffer from hyperthermia from the coldness of the well – and has been filled to prevent future accidents.
Officials added that “slithery serpents tried to assist in the rescue but did not have the proper training so we had to escorted them away.”
Orangeburg County Fire officials said the rescue involved a number of agencies, including Pine Hill and North Fire Departments, Orangeburg County EMS, County of Orangeburg Emergency Services, the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, Orangeburg Department of Public Safety, and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.