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View Winners → 2 cars fall into Chatsworth sinkhole trapping motorists
San Fernando Valley Jan 09, 2023
Two vehicles sit beneath the street after plunging into a sinkhole in Chatsworth. | Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Fire Department/YouTube
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Two people trapped inside a vehicle at the bottom of a large sinkhole were rescued Monday evening in Chatsworth.
Firefighters were called at 9:30 p.m. to the 11400 block of Iverson Road where they found two vehicles on top of each other approximately 15 feet below ground level.
Employing a high-angle rope and an aerial ladder operation positioned over the water-filled hole, in the midst of heavy rainfall, a firefighter was lowered down to secure a young girl and a woman with a harness and then raise them to the surface, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart.
The woman and girl were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Stewart said.
Two other victims were able to pull themselves up from the sinkhole before firefighters arrived. They were uninjured.
Stewart said 50 firefighters took part in the operation.
Because the roadway was completely compromised, authorities said it could not support emergency vehicles.
The sinkhole fully cut across the southbound lane of Iverson Road and the entire road was closed after being deemed impassable to traffic.
Updated Jan. 10, 2023, 3:55 p.m.
