Salem County, NJ, Woman Falls Down Well, Plummets 20-30 Feet

PILESGROVE — Firefighters from two states scrambled to rescue a woman who fell down a well Monday afternoon.

State Police, who provide local police service to Pilesgrove, were called to a home on Woodstown-Daretown Rd. in Pilesgrove where troopers found a woman had fallen between 20 and 30 feet into a well around 3:30 p.m., according to Sgt. Philip Curry.

The Reliance Fire Company was assisted by the New Castle County High Angle/Confined Space Rescue Team from Delaware which brought in a special ladder to help reach the woman using a rope rescue system.

Stuck in the mud

Chief Brian Facemyer of the Reliance Fire Company said the woman, who fractured her ankle in the fall, first had to be freed from knee-deep mud before she could be lifted from the well. She was then taken by medical helicopter to Christiana Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware.

Facemyer told CBS Philadelphia Salem County firefighters have never had to handle a situation like this before.

Curry did not disclose the circumstances of the fall.