A Long Island woman had a terrifying brush with death on her birthday after the ground beneath her backyard suddenly gave way, dropping her into an eight-foot-deep cesspool hole.
Danielle Tammone of Bohemia was celebrating her 47th birthday outdoors when the grass beneath her feet began to collapse. Within seconds, she had fallen into a dark underground pit.
“It happened so quickly. My feet just sunk a little bit. But it was like seconds. I didn’t even have time, and then I was just, whoop, down a hole, in the ground,” Tammone told 1010 Wins.
She said the hole was filled with muddy water, but she managed to stay above it by standing on a pile of sod. “I was lucky,” Tammone recalled.
Tammone tried to scramble up the narrow walls, but the slick mud gave her little to hold on to. As she struggled, stones and bricks began falling around her, intensifying her panic.
Trapped underground, she began to fear that the birthday celebration could become her final day.
“You’re like, ‘Wow, I could die today. This could not end well. I could be buried alive,’ because that’s what you’re thinking,” she told the outlet.
Tammone said she screamed for help for about 10 minutes before two nearby residents heard her and rushed over, then called 911.
Danielle Tammone, a Bohemia woman, was celebrating her 47th birthday in her backyard when the lawn suddenly collapsed beneath her. She plunged into an eight-foot-deep cesspool hole after her feet began sinking into the grass.
Ring camera video recorded Tammone’s desperate cries for help as her golden retriever, Daisy, circled the hole in distress, apparently trying to locate the source of the screams.
Tammone screamed for help for roughly 10 minutes before neighbors Maggie and Christy Chanowsky reached the backyard and called 911. At first, the women struggled to understand where the cries were coming from.
Home security footage captured the frightening scene, including Tammone’s pleas for help and Daisy pacing around the hole as she searched for her owner.
Christine Chanowsky and Maggie initially could not identify the source of the screams. They soon ran into the backyard and discovered Tammone at the bottom of the cesspool opening.
“At first, we thought she was in the shed or something. We were not looking on the ground,” Chanowsky told CBS News.
“Oh my God, she fell into the ground. We are on the phone with 911,” one of the neighbors said in the video.
Another neighbor tried to reassure her, saying, “You’re going to be fine, Danielle. They are on their way.”
The neighbors continued talking to Tammone and urged her to keep calling out so rescuers could quickly locate her.
Police arrived soon afterward with a ladder and pulled Tammone to safety from the underground hole.
Authorities have not said whether Tammone suffered any injuries in the fall.
While trapped beneath her backyard, Tammone feared she might not survive her 47th birthday. “You’re like, ‘Wow, I could die today. This could not end well. I could be buried alive,’” she told 1010 Wins.
She explained she was overcome with gratitude for the neighbors and police officials help as they even sang her happy birthday after she was rescued. Danielle Tammone (left) pictured with her husband Marc Levy (right)
‘I was tearing up. I was crying. As soon as she got out of the hole, just gave her the biggest hug,’ Chanowsky told the outlet.
Tammone explained she was overcome with gratitude for their help, and her neighbors even sang her happy birthday after she was rescued.
Our News Outlet has reached out to Danielle Tammone for comment and additional details on her condition since the accident.
