The Salem Fire Department’s rope rescue team hoisted an elderly woman out of a well after she fell more than 50 feet on Feb. 18. (Courtesy/ Silverton Fire Department)
An elderly Scotts Mills woman is in serious condition after falling more than 50 feet into an old well Thursday, the Silverton Fire Department said.
Firefighters arrived to a Scotts Mills home in the 3000 block of Crooked Finger Road as a neighbor used a rope and pulley to go down into the stone-lined well and keep the woman upright.
Ed Grambusch, Silverton’s assistant chief, said the woman had been in the well for 45 minutes when firefighters arrived.
“It’s amazing that she lived,” he said.
The Salem Fire Department’s rope rescue team was called in. They lowered a rescuer into the well, stabilized the woman and hoisted her to the top of the well opening.
Firefighters found the woman conscious, injured and “very hypothermic” as she was laying on a small outcropping partially submerged in water, according to a news release. The woman was taken to Salem Hospital.
The neighbor who used a rope to go down into the well was also hoisted out by firefighters, the department said.
-Saphara Harrell
