A crowd gathered around a teen girl who got stuck in a hole in the sand at Mission Beach on Tuesday.
The incident happened just north of Lifeguard Tower 13 near Belmont Park around 4:50 p.m.
Lifeguards say the teen was 6 to 8 feet deep in the hole when it partially collapsed, making her unable to climb out.
"We just saw her head and arms sticking up," San Diego Lifeguard Lt. Jacob Magness said.
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Dalila Cruz had a front-row seat, just a few feet away from the collapse. Cruz says the 16-year-old girl struggled to get out. With every attempt, more sand poured back into the hole so she waved down a nearby lifeguard.
“She was like OK I can’t move my legs I can’t move my legs she put her arms up," Cruz said.
SkyRanger 7 was overhead, showing lifeguards using shovels to free the teen, who police say is 16 years old.
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"The initial rescue attempt was to try to pull her out, which was not successful, so then that's when the digging had to start," Magness said.
After about 20 minutes of digging, the teen walked out of the hole and appeared uninjured.
"Everybody clapped. Everybody was cheering, so it was a great thing that could have been much much worse," said Richard Mestan, a witness.
Lifeguards helped walk her to a stretcher before taking her to a paramedic truck, SkyRanger 7 showed. Magness said the teen was assessed in the ambulance but released.
The San Diego Police Department was assisting with crowd control, according to SDPD Officer John Buttle.
The hole was filled in after the rescue.
What is a sand hole and why can they be dangerous?
A sand hole is what it sounds like — a hole in the sand. Plenty of beachgoers, especially children, enjoy digging as deep as they can. But the bigger the hole, the more dangerous it can be.
Dr. Stephen Leatherman from Florida International University's Department of Earth and Environment told NBC Miami that deep holes can be a "death trap." If you're gonna dig a hole in the sand, make sure it's no more than two feet deep.
"When people dig holes more than two feet deep and get in them, at least where their body's below the sand level, sand starts drying out immediately," Leatherman said. "And dry sand can only hold a 33-degree angle, and people dig these holes almost vertically."
At that point, the sides of the hole can start caving in and it can cave in very rapidly. Leatherman also pointed out the risk of someone stepping on the edge of a hole before the sand dries out and causing a massive collapse.
"The deeper the hole, the greater the risk," Leatherman said.
The statistics of sand hole deaths
"We don't hear much about it, but nationally, there have been a large number of people who have died in sand hole collapses," Leatherman said.
News reports and a 2007 medical study show that about three to five children die in the United States each year when a sand hole they are digging at the beach, a park or at home collapses on top of them. Others are seriously injured and require CPR to survive.
Those who died include a 17-year-old boy who was buried at a North Carolina beach last year, a 13-year-old who was digging into a sand dune at a state park in Utah and an 18-year-old who was digging with his sister at a New Jersey beach. Those two accidents happened in 2022.
“The risk of this event is enormously deceptive because of its association with relaxed recreational settings not generally regarded as hazardous,” the New England Journal of Medicine study concluded.
How to stay safe
Sand is fun to play with, and Leatherman recognizes that.
"But you shouldn't be digging holes," he said. "If you dig holes — no deeper than two feet, and cover them up when you leave. Keep it shallow and you don't have a problem of collapse."
He urges parents to monitor the size of any holes kids are digging and to stop them if they start to get deep.
"We all like to play in the sand," Leatherman said. "But if you play in sand, (make) sandcastles and very shallow holes."
Lifeguards say parents need to be careful about letting their children dig at the beach and not let them get too deep.
No other details were immediately available.
This is a developing story that will be updated as more information arrives.
