A young girl died on Tuesday in South Florida after a deep hole she and a little boy were digging on the beach collapsed, burying them both in the sand, according to authorities. Disturbing footage showed beachgoers using their hands to try and rescue the young girl trapped in a sand hole before she tragically died.
The young girl, believed to be around 5 to 7 years old, was digging a hole around 5 to 6 feet deep at a beach in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Fort Lauderdale, around 3 p.m. on Tuesday when the hole all of a sudden caved in on her and a 7-year-old boy, killing both, NBC Miami reported.
Tragic Death
The girl was completely buried by the weight of the sand, while the boy was buried up to his chest. Video footage from CBS Miami showed first responders and bystanders frantically digging out sand from the hole in an attempt to rescue the trapped girl.
Firefighters were seen using shovels and boards to clear the sand away from the hole during the time-sensitive rescue effort.
"It was an unfathomable accident," said Sandra King, the spokeswoman for Pompano Beach Fire Rescue, in an interview with the Miami Herald.
King revealed that the girl had stopped breathing by the time rescuers reached her. Paramedics made efforts to revive her while transporting both her and the boy to Broward Health Medical Center.
Upon arrival at Broward Health Medical Center, the girl was pronounced dead, as confirmed by King.
"We were conducting life-saving techniques to try to bring her pulse back, and it never did recover, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital," King said.
The boy was listed in stable condition.
Completely Unexpected
It is unclear whether the children were locals or tourists visiting the beach. Their identities are being withheld due to the victims' ages. A witness shared a video of the boy being hurried away by first responders after being pulled from the sand hole, as reported by NBC Miami.
The duration of time the girl was trapped under the sand remains unknown.
The children had allegedly been digging the hole with some adults before it collapsed. The investigation into the circumstances of the fatal collapse is ongoing, according to officials.
The incident occurred around 4 miles from Chase Stadium, the home of the professional Inter Miami CF team.
According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, there were 52 instances between 1997 and 2007 where people became buried in collapsing sand holes, resulting in 31 fatalities.
The victims ranged in age from 3 to 21 years. In May 2023, a 17-year-old male died after a hole he was digging at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in Frisco, North Carolina, collapsed on him, according to the National Park Service.
The teenager, visiting from Chesapeake, Virginia, was digging the hole in a back-dune area behind the beach's primary dune along the Atlantic Ocean when it caved in.
Officials reported that the teen in the May 2023 incident had been buried under at least several feet of sand.
In May 2022, an 18-year-old boy and his sister were digging a large hole on a beach at Toms River on the Jersey Shore when the sand collapsed, trapping both siblings. The 18-year-old from Maine was pronounced dead at the scene, while his injured 17-year-old sister survived.
