Missing Grandma May Still Be Alive, but Officials Say Sinkhole Search Is Becoming More Dangerous
“We’re just to a point where we can’t send rescuers to an area where they can be injured or killed,” authorities said amid the ongoing search for Elizabeth Pollard
CBS Pittsburgh
Rescuers are no longer sending manned crews into the 30-foot sinkhole where a Pennsylvania grandmother, who has been missing for more than 36 hours, is believed to have fallen.
Citing the safety of the ground near where 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard disappeared, crews transitioned to using K-9 units, cameras and other electronic devices on Wednesday, Dec. 4, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“We’re just to a point where we can’t send rescuers to an area where they can be injured or killed,” Pleasant Unity Volunteer Fire Department Chief John Bacha said. “We’re still looking and doing everything we can.”
Conditions deteriorated overnight on Wednesday when the roof of a nearby mine collapsed, the newspaper reported.
Related: Missing Grandmother May Have Been Swallowed by Giant Sinkhole While Looking for Cat, Authorities Say
“Things changed quickly whenever we ran into an oxygen deficient atmosphere, which meant at that point, everybody that was going into that area to do that excavation work had to be on breathing apparatus,” Bacha said.
Bacha went on to say that Pollard's access to oxygen is a "concern," but that crews have been keeping oxygen flowing into the mine.
In an early morning press conference, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said that “the integrity of that mine is starting to become compromised,” according to CNN.
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Yet as rescuers continue to search for Pollard, they believe she could still be alive.
“There’s been nothing that said she is not alive or she could not possibly have survived,” Limani added. “There’s nothing that said 100% definitively it couldn’t have happened. And until that 100% happens, how could I say it’s any other way?”
Previously, the Associated Press reported that Limani said a shoe possibly belonging to Pollard was found “about 30 feet below the surface.”
“It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani said.
A relative first reported Pollard missing on Tuesday, Dec. 3, just before 1 a.m., according to ABC News. The Unity Township, Pa., woman had been out searching for her cat named Pepper since 5 p.m. the previous day.
Authorities found Pollard’s 5-year-old granddaughter inside her vehicle — parked near a newly formed sinkhole — where she had fallen asleep.
After finding the granddaughter inside the car and the sinkhole just steps away, rescuers first realized the gravity of the woman’s disappearance.
“We, at that point in time, realized that this could be a very bad situation,” Limani said.
PEOPLE reached out to Limani for an update on the search on Wednesday afternoon, but did not immediately hear back.
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