Thread: AZ: BORSTAR dramatic rescue

BORSTAR dramatic rescue

June 21, 2007 11:18 AM CDT

Tucson Border Patrol's search and rescue unit BORSTAR pulled off a dramatic rescue yesterday in the desert west of Tucson. It happened on the Tohono O'Odham Reservation near the village of Cowlic after an illegal immigrant fell into a water well.

The Border Patrol says the 29 year old woman had been walking for days with her sister and her sister's three children. They were out of water and dehydrated. So the woman climbed into a well to get water. Then she couldn't get out.

Ron Bellavia, who is commander of the BORSTAR unit, says, "She was approximately 30 feet down in waste deep water on a very small ledge getting footholds in the small rocks lining the side of the well."

Border Patrol agents who found her say she was hysterical and exhausted from holding on. The BORSTAR unit arrived with repelling equipment and an agent dropped into the well to pull the woman out.

Bellavia says he can only imagine the woman's nightmare. He says, "It would be very terrifying to be in a 30 foot well in the middle of the desert not knowing where you are after the smuggler abandons you and additional parties in the group go to find help."

To make matters worse, while the woman hung on to the well's wall, bees stung her.

Bellavia says, "She was also having allergic reactions to the bee stings. We didn't know the extent of her reactions. But her face and arms were very swollen."

The Border Patrol doesn't know how long the border crosser was in the well. Bellavia says it could have been as long as five hours.

He says, "There was a high probability her arms and legs were not going to be able to hold her on that small ledge any longer. Had she fallen all the way into the water, she could have drown."

It was Tucson BORSTAR's first well rescue. They had trained for years to do it and within minutes they had the woman out.

Amazingly, she had just minor injuries.

She and the people she was traveling with were returned to Mexico.


http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=6691450

The Border Patrol says the 29 year old woman had been walking for days with her sister and her sister's three children. They were out of water and dehydrated. So the woman climbed into a well to get water. Then she couldn't get out.

How fast can we build thousands more of these new traps for illegals?

Send the bill for the rescue to Mexico