A 6-year-old girl who fell down an open manhole outside of a Bronx housing project during Saturday's blizzard just barely escaped with her life. Kalima Crawford, 6, had to cling to pipes after falling down the hole, which had been hidden by accumulating snow at the St. Mary's Park Houses. As the little girl hung, waist-deep in cold water, her mother, Sharon Burrell, began to panic.
The incident took place at 3:30 p.m."Her whole body was in the hole," Burrell, 38, told the Daily News. "I started screaming out of my lungs. She can't swim and I was afraid she was going to drown."
Burrell told PIX 11 that her 6-year-old daughter didn't see the hole until it was too late and fell roughly eight feet down.
"It was dark and scary in there," Crawford told the News. "I thought I'd never see my mommy again." The 6-year-old was rescued from the hole by Andres Machuca, who told WABC-TV that two friends held him by the legs and lowered him into the hole until he could reach Crawford. The girl was taken to a nearby building and then rushed in an ambulance to Lincoln Hospital, where CBS reports she was treated for cuts and lacerations.
After Crawford's rescue, the NYCHA released the following statement, addressing the hole at St. Mary's Park Houses:
The safety of our residents is of paramount importance. We are looking into the incident. The manhole has been covered with plywood as an immediate safety measure, and we’ve contacted a contractor to place a fence around the location as soon as tomorrow.
Still, the young girl's mother has retained a lawyer and told the News that she plans to sue the city. "I thought my daughter was going to die," she told the tabloid. "This is unacceptable."
