Christine Keilback lands in a sinkhole outside her home in Winnipeg.Supplied by Lynda Regan/Supplied
After a night out at the movies last Saturday in Winnipeg, Christine Keilback was all set to go home. But after a ride from a friend, she stepped out of the car and then, just disappeared.
No, she hadn’t been kidnapped. Incredibly, she fell in a hole.
“When my friends came around, it was just my head and shoulders above the earth,” she said, adding she looked like Winnie-the-Pooh stuck in Rabbit’s hole after eating too much honey. “How ridiculous does this look?”
The solution to keep her from falling deeper into the hole was a big yellow snow shovel and a broom under her arms.Supplied by Lynda Regan/Supplied
Ms. Keilback, 58, fell shoulders-deep into an open catch basin across the street from her house in the Wolseley neighbourhood.
“It was just a bizarre experience. So I had to laugh,” she said. She told her friend to take photos to prove the crazy experience wasn’t just a tall tale.
Pretty quickly, it became clear that climbing out of the hole was out of the question. There were no steady toe holds and the soil kept crumbling as Ms. Keilback tried to find stable footing to free herself.
In order to keep from tumbling lower into the pit, Ms. Keilback’s friends found a solution: a big yellow snow shovel and a broom under her arms.
One of her friends called 911 as Ms. Keilback waited. A neighbour offered her snacks until the Winnipeg fire department arrived 10 minutes later.
“I was just being a goof. I was waving to my neighbours because I didn’t feel like I was in any big danger,” she said.
The fire department set up a tripod-like contraption connected to a winch and a rope. Ms. Keilback was then given instructions on how to wiggle herself into a harness.
Ms. Keilback was in the hole for around 40 minutes.Supplied by Lynda Regan/Supplied
She said she had to duck and bend down to hook it under her legs.
“Then, all of a sudden, I was floating,” she said.
All told, Ms. Keilback was in the hole for around 40 minutes.
She said being 5 feet 4 inches with her head and shoulders above the ground made a big difference and that if she had sunk lower, it would have been “mortifying.”
“There’s 100 different ways this could have been different. I could have been cut on the piece of metal behind me that I wasn’t even aware was there. I could have been hit by the pipe that was right in front of me. I could have sprained my ankle. I could have broken my leg. But for now, I was just standing in a hole,” she said, laughing.
“I’m very pleased it was me because honestly, what if a child had fallen in that hole, or a dog or an animal,” she said.
The fire department gave her instructions on how to wiggle herself into a harness.Supplied by Lynda Regan/Supplied
Lisa Marquardson, a spokesperson for the city, said crews put a temporary cover and barricades on top of the hole the same night. She said Ms. Keilback fell into a catch basin that was missing a cover, and it has now been filled with gravel.
Ms. Marquardson said city officials later discovered a second open catch basin on the opposite side of the road.
“We do not have any records of a situation like this happening in recent memory. We will investigate this issue further,” she said.
As for Ms. Keilback, once she was back above ground and freed from her adventure, she finally went home and opened a bottle of wine to drink with her friends.