Teen rescued after buried in San Diego beach sand hole

SAN DIEGO (KSWB/KUSI) – San Diego lifeguards on Tuesday rescued a 16-year-old girl who was buried in a six-foot sand hole at Mission Beach, first responders said.

The incident was reported around 4:50 p.m., according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

Aerial footage of the rescue captured lifeguards and bystanders frantically digging to remove the girl who was pinned in the sand with the tide moving in.

“We saw that she was buried up to her neck, we could only see her head and her arms sticking out,” said Lt. Jacob Magness from the San Diego Lifeguards. (Officials with San Diego Fire later said the teen was only buried to her waist.)

The teen’s friends had been digging with no success, so they flagged down lifeguards from 100 yards down the beach. Crews from other areas responded after an emergency call, as did nearby bystanders.

Richard Mastan, a good Samaritan who jumped in to help, said he already had a shovel in his hand by the time rescue crews arrived.

I was just digging like crazy,” Mastan said. “I was so scared for her because she was way down there.”

After 30 minutes of digging, emergency crews and friends finally freed the young woman. Cheers erupted, as did a sign of collective relief. Witnesses also expressed their admiration and appreciation for the rescuers’ efforts.

Nexstar’s KSWB captured aerial footage of a trench rescue at San Diego’s Mission Beach on July 16, 2024. (KSWB/KUSI)

Locals told NewsNation affiliate KSWB that digging on the beach is a much more concerning activity than they previously realized.

“I was worried about the drowning, but apparently you’ve got to be worried about the sand too,” witness Michael Valasquez said.

The 16-year-old was later evaluated by paramedics and released to her parents.

A similar incident, albeit a much more tragic one, made national headlines in February, after a 7-year-old girl died when a sand hole that she and her brother were digging collapsed on the two of them.

A 2007 article published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that several people are killed or injured attempting to dig sand holes each year, with most incidents occurring on a public beach.

“The risk of this event is enormously deceptive because of its association with relaxed recreational settings not generally regarded as hazardous,” the article said. “However, we believe these personal and family tragedies probably are more common than this report suggests.”