Firefighters rescue woman trapped between two buildings
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Firefighters rescued a woman who fell part of the way down a 20-foot wall and got wedged between two buildings in Southwest Portland Wednesday morning.
The woman fell between the parking garage of the Gretchen Kafoury Commons apartment building and the Joyce Furman building near Southwest 12th Avenue and Columbia Street at around 3:45 a.m., firefighters said.
The space she fell into was only about eight inches wide.
Neighbors who spoke with KATU News said they had no idea how she got on the ledge of the two-story building where she fell.
Charles Rowell lives in the ninth floor of the apartment building over the garage. He said he heard the woman calling for help.
"I was laying in bed, you know, and I heard it," said Rowell."I thought it was a cat. Two tomcats fighting. I looked out the window and I heard a woman yelling 'Help me! Help me! Help me!'”
Rowell said he ran downstairs and saw a garbage truck. The men inside called 9-1-1.
Firefighters pulled the woman to safety at 7:30 a.m. after they spent nearly four hours cutting one of the concrete walls around the woman to free her.
She was taken to Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and appeared to be in good health, firefighters said. Because the woman is a patient, the department won't release her name unless she gives her consent.
She was later released from the hospital.
When firefighters pulled her to safety, the woman clenched her fists and shouted, "Oh, my God!"
The woman was wedged about four feet above the ground before rescuers installed braces to support her.
Crews used airbags to spread the walls as much as they could and used soapy water to slide the woman free. Lt. Rich Chatman of the Portland fire department climbed into the hole to apply the soapy water.
"She was in good spirits," said Chatman. "We just tried to reassure her... we weren't going home without her."
Chatman had to cut part of the woman's shirt off to pull her free.
“Initially our plan was to basically cut a doorway and pull the wall away from the patient,” said Portland Fire Bureau spokesman Lt. Damon Simmons. “We had a dust issue. The dust was creating some breathing issues there for her.”
Firefighters cut windows on each side of the woman to blow in heat and give her blankets.
"We used a propane heater with a long tube," said Chatman. "We have equipment specially-designed for situations like this."
They also passed the woman cups of water through a hole in the concrete while they worked.
“We brought her husband up to talk to her, and keep her spirits up,” Simmons said.
Firefighters extended one of those windows to turn one of them into a door, Simmons said.
“That last couple feet, she had that look of determination," said Chatman. "We were all pretty convinced no matter what, she was coming out that way. That last foot, she just looked over and said 'I'm comin' out.'"
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Watching this video made my heart race just as it did 30 years ago when Jessica McClure was trapped. I realize she isn't an 18 month old baby and it didn't take them 58 hours to free her, but I have no doubt this young woman will have a long road ahead of her trying to get past this.
What the heck was she doing walking on this ledge? Bad suicide attempt? Not trying to be funny, I just can't understand why someone would walk on a ledge like that unless you are beyond wasted. Picture of ledge: http://media.katu.com/images/Ledge-from-above.jpg
That must have been  like getting born all over again  what with that tight squeeze-fit and the need to get out,  but in a C-section birthing where she has to be cut out to get out. Glad she got out. Way to go Portland emergency rescue folks!!!
Damn in some ways these 2 walls saved her, but what caused her to fall?
Â
The short answer: gravity.
Now that is a wedgie:)
What is the over/under on how long until a MAJOR lawsuit is filed against the building owners.
2 things:
1) Yeah yeah yeah, woman stuck in tight space, whatever.....But WHY in the World would they build a building SO F***ing CLOSE TO ANOTHER BUILDING??? If the 2 buildings aren't going to share a single wall, then there should be at Least enough room to walk between them! WTH! Â (but in reality, the fact that she got wedged actually saved her life. Otherwise, she would've fallen to her death)
2) I thought this article said "Updated at 4:01pm"...... Where's to new info? Everything in this article is stuff we all knew at 7am this morning. Â When are they gonna get to the part we all wanna know.... HOW and WHY???
 @kalbinwhy possibly because the apartment building was built in 2000 and was put right up against the older one next to it. and she'd really have to go out of her way to get to that position on the ledge; you cant just be walking along and fall into it.
Could you please present your proven test examples to that theory woth Portland residents. Thank you. It happened in Portland. Land of the biggest idiots of idiots. These people have a test model called DETROIT and thy are doing everything exactly like Detroit did 30 years ago expecting a different result.
 @kalbinwhy it was 20 feet. i doubt she would have died.
It happened in Portlandia. Those also idiots get killed by electric trains moving 2mph. That society is one of the USA's weakest forms of life. Look at the turds they elect too.
I am glad she made it without serious injuries, but what in the world was he doing on the roof at 3:45 am.
Why would time of day matter? Bars close at 230am. Tenders close up and get out around 330-400 am 7 days a week. And besides, this is the USA, curfews to adults over 18 are not an issue, -----oops----until 0bama starts his second term.
Portland Firefighters are AWESOME !!!!!!
The skills and ingenuity of firemen never cease to amaze me. Thank God for firemen.
@ormom YES!
Pretty good argument for building set-back codes. Glad she's ok.
They should heat that space more often for the homeess
^^^^
Homeless
I'm not claustrophobic, but that first pic in the gallery gives me the creeps! The thought of being that confined is just horrifying!
 @pdx10 you can hear her yelling and screaming in the background of the 2nd 911 call
For such a small space (8 inches), it's very hard to fall in there. Both feet have to step in the gap to fall inside. Carelessness is not enough.
 @imanonymous it's about twice that width in actuality. i dont know why they say 8 inches; it's closer to a foot and a half.
 @imanonymous Oh, I think  careless slipping is possible. But what she was doing on that skinny little wall is another thing...talk about a catwalk...
We can blame it on OMMP or Medical Marijuana, maybe?
"he is who without sin past the first rock and I shall smoketh it" chappelle - but seems to fit for this.
Looks like another resident of one of our many taxpayer subsidized apartments in that area has decided to go bonkers (much like the guy that murdered the woman on Xmas). She looks like a real winner. Don't think she going to work anywhere today. Got high on the roof and fell into a crack? Glad to see our tax dollars are going to such a good cause. What a total waste. Make her pay for the rescue and drug test her now.
Well..... Now they can say she has another  CRACK problem. The official CRACK lady of PORKland
 @ryanmang she's not a resident of the building. she also appeared sober and lucid when she was pulled free.
hahahaha, she was laughing and incoherant.
 @ryanmang The income restricted housing has income limits that maximize how much someone can earn to qualify to live there, and quite often minimum income requirements as well. When I lived in another state, there were some nice new apartments that were for rent, I went to look at them. The maximum income to qualify (this was maybe 10 years ago) was $24000 for a single person, and on that ground I'd qualify since I was working 30-40 hour work weeks in customer service, but the minimum income requirement I believe was monthly income of at least 3 times the monthly rent, so often times it isn't really giving a whole lot of "wiggle room" for people to take advantage of it.
 @pdxd  @ryanmang There is still that problem. Some  (several) of these properties are  owned by a well-known  local so-called "non-profit"  that  has jacked their rents up to  medium-high market levels or more and  many working class people have had to move out of them because they cannot afford the rent. The only people who seem to afford these places are Section 8 tenants because this non-profit is sticking it  to the government housing authority to get the absolute  highest amount of compensation they can squeeze out of it, with no regard for the spirit of the  law of "affordable housing". Meanwhile they build new buildings all over the place and the staff is bloated at double/thrice the staff necessary.Â
And these people on section 8 get the free state childcare. Then, Â baby's daddy [[[that is not on the Birf Certificate]]] gets paid to watch his own kids while she walks the streets.
@ryanmang @ryanmang There are also lots of young people who live in these buildings who are part of the working poor who also pay taxes to cover fire and rescue just in case something happens to you.Young people also like to drink and go to various clubs get drunk and do silly stupid thing like climb on top of buildings.Unless your past as a young person is pure as the driven snow,you have no room to talk.I'm sure you would be happy if they just left her up there indefinitely?
Sorry to burst your theory, but no matter working or not, if you qualify to live in that building you are not paying any  taxes. Hint ---subsidized= not enough money = not a taxable income. Here's one for you. Look up EIC while yer at your grand standing for feeders. People that pay absolutely 0(ZERO) in taxes can get in the area of 4200 EIC return. Huuf and puff, you blew your own house down.
Every time someone gets into trouble in the wilderness and has to be rescued, the trolls come out in force demanding that they be required to pay for the rescue efforts. Â Where are such demands for this incident? Â She was just as careless (stupid), as anyone lost or stuck in the woods or on Mt. Hood. Â I'm sure the costs to rescue her and repair the damage is quite high. Â Why the double standard? Â Just asking.
It is close to impossible to fine or charge people on welfare as the state/local area would be suing themself.
 @MMRoach She and we already pay for such rescues as needed.
It's called taxes which support police and fire departments.
Would you care to be billed every time an officer responds to take
a crime report from you, or directs traffic at an auto accident you might have?
 @Mipsfer You missed my point.  I feel the same way you do.  I pay a lot in taxes, and have for a long time.  I use the services provided less than most, but have no problem with that.  My point was why do the trolls attack when someone needs help outside of the urban areas, wilderness, woods, Mt. Hood, etc.,  but don't start their antics when something occurs in the city?
@MMRoach No double standardd, just like people getting lost in the moutains I think they need to finish rescuing, make sure the person is going to be ok THEN decide if it was negligence or unavoidable.
Still a bit of residue ice on roofs, I'm guessing.
I don't think it was Ice or meth. I think it was weed and liquor.
This is what is going to happen to everybody if we let the new world order take over the world!
 @portlandborn83Â
Pinky: "What we gonna do tomorrow night, Brain?"
Biggest question of the day: What are you doing on a rooftop at 3:45 AM?
Probably out having a smoke!
 @jpk Typically you and I don't see eye-to-eye, but in this case we do. I'm guessing she was having a smoke, toke, or drink of some kind. But it still takes a special kind of something to get trapped in an 8 inch gap.
Why does time matter? I know many normal bar tenders that get off work 330-40 am and continue on their day. Time of day depends on the person and their life schedule. Go down to Miami Florida. Nothing gets going in the hot areas of town until 130-200 am and goes until 5am closing, then starts back up at 6am openning time. I know 73 year old women that worked in Portland mills, night shift, and their life schedule keeps them up all night where they feel comfortable living even after being retire a decade.
Update on a different PORKland site  says it was an 18 inch crack.
Could be contributory, but who in their right mind does that at that time in the morning, in the dark?
 @pdxd  @jpk icy ledge?
Youy could call that skinny-dipping? Into an 8" space?
 @pdxd Smallest answer of the day: Falling, getting stuck.
 @Gravity Works! But somehow there was a reason for getting on the roof
 @pdxd  @EdgarDerby does it even matter?
 @EdgarDerby Actually, I have no clue why someone would get on a roof.
 @pdxd  @Gravity Works! Why even ask this question? You obviously already have some answer in mind.