Galley Hill mystery hole sparks rescue drama

Bohemia and Hastings teams joined Bexhill firefighters at the scene last Thursday lunchtime following reports that a man could have fallen down the mystery hole.

Firefighter Steve Cramp was harnessed up to crawl along a ladder placed over the deep hole to peer down into it with the aid of a torch to see if anyone was trapped.

The firefighters were roped to a four wheel drive vehicle for safety as they crawled along the ladder in case the sides of the hole collapsed.

Firefighter Dave Thurston said: "This huge hole opened up and Southern Water wanted to make sure it was safe by digging it out. They wanted to be 100 per cent certain that there was no one trapped down there someone out walking their dog could have disappeared down there so we set up access rescue kit with ropes and harnesses and put two firefighters on the harnesses and lowered them over the hole so they could inspect it.

"It was 13 or 14ft deep and manhole cover size on the top in the grass. It just appeared and down below there was a huge cavern. It was at least four metres deep.

"We know there are large water tanks in there."

The area was cordoned off by police as the hour long search operation continued until firefighters were satisfied no one was trapped.

The Bohemia firefighters, with Station officer Mick Meek as officer in charge, were first on the scene because the Bexhill crew were on breathing apparatus training at Maresfield and because they were able to get there quicker than the retained crew.

The search was called off at 12.30pm when no-one was found.

A Southern Water spokesman said the hole just appeared near a storm water tunnel/storage tank which keeps overflow water from flowing into the sea.

"The fire brigade was called as a precaution," she said. "But there was no-one in the hole."

Later that afternoon the storm tank was drained to check for any damage and Southern Water began an investigation into why the hole had appeared.

Pictured left, the cavernous hole which appeared near storm water tanks on Galley Hill.

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