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Woman Rescued After Falling Through Sidewalk Grate On East 60th Street
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 12, 2013
Modified Jan 12, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 12, 2013
Modified Jan 12, 2013
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Last night, a woman fell through the sidewalk grating on an Upper East Side street. Apparently the 31-year-old was trying to seek shelter from the rain while waiting for a bus, so she walked over towards the building at 301 East 60th Street—only for the grating to give way. A person inside the restaurant at the building told the Post, "The woman was enormous. She had to be more than 300 pounds. The ground literally fell out from underneath her. It happened so fast she did not scream or anything. Everybody in the bar got up to look."
The FDNY received the call at 9:13 p.m. and found that the woman fell about five to seven feet into a basement. They removed her with a "high-angle rescue unit" and it took about a half hour before the FDNY could get her out. FDNY Fire Chief Thomas Jemmott told the Post, "She is a very large person, but we were able to secure her and stabilize her and lift her out of the hole." She suffered an arm injury and was taken to Cornell-Weill New York Presbyterian Hospital.
A fire official suggested that the sidewalk gave way because of the age of the concrete. In 2007, a woman fell through a Con Ed grate—and narrowly escaped being electrocuted—on West 51st Street; Con Ed later said that a garbage truck weakened the grate.
Tagged
east 60th street
rescue
sidewalk
sidewalk collapse
sidewalk grating
upper east side
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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