A tragic incident unfolded on a Florida beach when a young girl, estimated to be between 5 and 7 years old, died after being trapped in a sand hole she had dug. The incident occurred at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in Fort Lauderdale around 3 p.m. on Tuesday. The girl and a 7-year-old boy were both trapped when the hole, which was about 5 to 6 feet deep, collapsed on them. The girl was completely buried by the sand, while the boy was buried up to his chest.
Bystanders and first responders rushed to the scene, frantically digging with their hands to rescue the trapped children. Firefighters also joined the rescue efforts, using shovels and boards to clear the sand away from the hole in a race against time to reach the girl.
Sandra King, a spokeswoman for Pompano Beach Fire Rescue, described the incident as an “unfathomable accident” in a statement to the Miami Herald. She revealed that the girl had stopped breathing by the time rescuers reached her. Paramedics attempted to revive her while rushing both children to Broward Health Medical Center.
Sadly, the girl was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. “We were conducting life-saving techniques to try to bring her pulse back, and it never did recover, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital,” King said. The boy, however, was listed in stable condition.
The identities of the children have not been released due to their ages, and it remains unclear whether they were locals or tourists. It is also unknown how long the girl was trapped under the sand before she was rescued. A video shared by a witness showed the boy being rushed away by first responders after being pulled from the sand hole.
According to reports, the children had been digging the hole with some adults before it collapsed. An investigation into the circumstances leading to the fatal collapse is currently underway.
This incident is a grim reminder of the dangers of digging deep holes in the sand. A report by the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that between 1997 and 2007, there were 52 instances of people becoming buried in collapsed sand holes, resulting in 31 deaths. The victims ranged in age from 3 to 21 years.
In a similar incident in May 2023, a 17-year-old boy from Chesapeake, Virginia, died after a hole he was digging at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in Frisco, North Carolina, collapsed on him. In May 2022, an 18-year-old boy from Maine died and his 17-year-old sister was injured when a large hole they dug on a beach at Toms River on the Jersey Shore collapsed.