By Martin Weil and Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 1, 2008

A 47-year-old Montgomery County woman fell into a ditch near her home last night and got stuck, setting off an intensive effort in the cold and rain to get her out.

It was already dark shortly before 6 p.m. when the woman slipped into the trench near her home at a condominium development in the Montgomery Village section of Gaithersburg, authorities said.

Under floodlights, the woman was pulled from the excavation in the 19400 block of Brassie Place by the Montgomery Fire and Rescue Service after a complex rescue operation that lasted an hour and a half.

Conducted before the eyes of concerned neighbors, it involved about 40 rescue workers operating an array of specialized equipment, shoring the walls of the ditch, pumping warm air into it and checking on the woman's health.

"Vehicles were all over the place," one area resident said.

The woman, who was not immediately identified, was taken to a hospital with mild hypothermia and injuries that were not considered life threatening, said county fire and rescue spokesman Pete Piringer.

The incident, and the response, drew widespread attention at the condominium development where the woman lives, about two miles east of Interstate 270.

"It was a very big scene out here tonight," said one of the residents of the development.

Piringer and residents said it appeared that the trench was a few inches from a sidewalk and about six feet deep. No barrier appeared to separate it from the nearby walkway, Piringer said.

It was not immediately clear how the woman fell into the ditch, which apparently was part of a utility project at the development, Piringer said. Neighbors said she was out for a walk with her husband and their dog, which one resident described as a boxer.

Some neighbors said they had been told that the dog began pursuing a squirrel and might have lunged, causing the woman to lose her footing.

The woman might have placed a foot in the wrong place, or earth at the edge of the ditch might have given way and the woman "couldn't keep her balance," Piringer said. He said it was possible that she had a preexisting knee injury.

It was feared that the walls of the trench might be unstable, Piringer said. Work proceeded carefully.

"Any trench rescue is a slow, deliberate process," Piringer said. Finally, the woman, on a backboard, was hoisted out.

Callers to the condominium management office were directed to the Montgomery Village Foundation. According to its Web site, the foundation offers management services for condominiums in the Montgomery Village area. A call to the spokeswoman for the foundation was not returned last night.