A Long Island woman had a terrifying birthday after the ground suddenly gave way beneath her, dropping her into an eight-foot-deep cesspool hole in her backyard and leaving her at risk of being buried alive.
Danielle Tammone of Bohemia was celebrating her 47th birthday outdoors when the grass beneath her feet began to collapse. Within seconds, she had disappeared into a dark underground pit.
“It happened so quickly. My feet just sunk a little bit. But it was like seconds. I didn’t even have time, and then I was just, whoop, down a hole, in the ground,” Tammone told 1010 Wins.
She said the hole was filled with muddy water, but a mound of sod beneath her feet kept her from sinking farther. “I was lucky, I was standing on a pile of sod,” she said.
Tammone tried to claw her way up the narrow opening, but the mud-covered walls were too slick to grip. As stones and bricks crumbled around her, she began to panic.
Trapped underground, Tammone feared the birthday celebration could become a fight for her life.
“You’re like, ‘Wow, I could die today. This could not end well. I could be buried alive,’ because that’s what you’re thinking,” she told the outlet.
She spent roughly 10 minutes screaming for help before two nearby residents heard her cries, rushed over and called 911.
Danielle Tammone, a Bohemia resident, was celebrating her 47th birthday in her backyard when she suddenly plunged into an eight-foot-deep cesspool hole. Her feet began sinking into the grass, and moments later the ground opened beneath her.
Ring camera footage captured Tammone’s desperate cries for help. Her golden retriever, Daisy, paced around the hole, apparently searching for the source of the screams.
Tammone said she screamed “bloody murder” during the 10 minutes she was trapped before neighbors Maggie and Christy Chanowsky reached the backyard and came to her aid.
Video from a Ring camera recorded the frightening scene as Tammone called out from underground. Daisy, her golden retriever, circled the opening in distress, trying to locate her owner.
Christine Chanowsky and Maggie initially struggled to understand where the screams were coming from. When they ran into the backyard, they realized Tammone had fallen into the cesspool hole.
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“At first, we thought she was in the shed or something. We were not looking on the ground,” Chanowsky told CBS News.
“Oh my God, she fell into the ground. We are on the phone with 911,” one of the neighbors said in the video.
“You’re going to be fine, Danielle. They are on their way,” another neighbor reassured her.
The neighbors continued talking to Tammone and urged her to keep calling out so rescuers could quickly locate her.
Police officers soon arrived with a ladder and pulled Tammone out of the underground opening.
Authorities have not said whether Tammone suffered injuries in the fall.
While trapped underground, Tammone feared her birthday might be her last. “You’re like, ‘Wow, I could die today. This could not end well. I could be buried alive,’” she told 1010 Wins.
She explained she was overcome with gratitude for the neighbors and police officials help as they even sang her happy birthday after she was rescued. Danielle Tammone (left) pictured with her husband Marc Levy (right)
‘I was tearing up. I was crying. As soon as she got out of the hole, just gave her the biggest hug,’ Chanowsky told the outlet.
Tammone explained she was overcome with gratitude for their help, and her neighbors even sang her happy birthday after she was rescued.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Danielle Tammone for comment and additional details on her condition since the accident.