Before we get into the awful details, I want you to know that this story about a little girl around 7 years old and her 9-year-old brother doing what so many kids do on the beach ends in tragedy. I tell you so that you are prepared because I know that as a parent, this hit me hard. I do think it’s an important story to share, though, because it could help save future lives. OK, now that you have been warned and hopefully prepared yourself, let’s get into the details.
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On Tuesday, February 20, the children, whose names haven’t been released, were having fun digging a hole together in the sand at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in Broward County, which is about 33 miles from Miami, Florida. So basically, they were just being kids and doing the kind of thing that kids do on the beach. But at some point, the hole they were digging got deep enough to collapse on itself and trap the kids.
Both of the children found themselves stuck in the sand.
According to Sandra King, a spokesperson for Pompano Beach Fire, the hole was anywhere from 5 to 6 feet deep when it collapsed. The little boy ended up getting buried up to his chest, but the little girl was completely buried by the sand.
Even before emergency crews got there, bystanders tried to rescue the kids.
The fire rescue team got a call a little after 3 p.m. and by the time they got there, people on the beach were doing what they could to try and dig out the children. Some used their bare hands while others grabbed toy buckets and shovels to try to help.
One witness described the harrowing situation.
“I mean you saw grown men digging with shovels and buckets and nobody could find her,” Christian De La Rosa told Local10 News. “I guess when the wall caved in she may have been laying flat and so maybe it just kind of pancaked her. The dad was able to pull his son out but the daughter was still underneath the sand.”
After the boy was rescued from the sand by his father, his parents put him in a Broward Sheriff’s Office car and he was rushed to the hospital. According to King, he was in stable condition.
Unfortunately, the little girl could not be saved.
By the time firefighters were able to get her out, she no longer had a pulse. “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.
A witness captured video of good Samaritans as they tried to dig the kids out.
It’s heartbreaking for everyone who was there. I can’t even begin to imagine the trauma. Not just for the family and the surviving child, but also for everyone who witnessed what happened. You don’t just get over something like seeing a child who died because she was buried alive while playing on the beach.
How could something like this happen?
“When a hole is dug into a beach when the sand is moist in a zone where the tide has recently receded, as the sand dries the ground becomes weaker, and when it’s disturbed it can suddenly collapse,” CBS Miami reported.
I had no idea that this was even a danger!
Did you? I genuinely had no clue and have even helped my kids dig bigger holes than they could have on their own when we’ve spent time playing by the ocean. I would never have done it if I knew it was potentially dangerous.
What can you do to prevent this from happening?
“Sand is, by nature, structurally unstable. Beach erosion, storms, and the removal of sand can weaken the area, potentially causing issues even after the hole has been filled back in,” warns a post about the danger of digging holes in the beach on the Seaside Vacations website.
Help spread the news about the dangers of digging holes on the beach.
Current TV shared a video they created in partnership with the Town of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, meant to “inform the public about the dangers of digging deep holes on the beach.” One of their most important holes is to never dig deeper than knee deep.
