Woman in her garden saw sinkhole swallow man
QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. — A woman who was outside gardening saw an irrigation worker disappear into a sinkhole that suddenly opened behind his truck a few hundred yards from where she was standing.
But even though she immediately called authorities Friday, rescuers couldn't save Guadalupe Gomez Nila, 60.
“The irrigation worker ... lowered the tailgate and all she saw were arms go up in the air,” said Detective Doug Matteson with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s a frightening sight. She didn’t know what happened. She thought he fell.”
The woman panicked as she looked out over the farm field and called the sheriff’s office, he said. Fire crews were called in and found a large sinkhole.
“We immediately thought the worst,” he said. "It was like a raging river that was under there."
Man walking behind truck disappears in sinkhole
Nila either suffocated or drowned because of the water and loose dirt. The sinkhole formed sometime between 3 and 3:30 p.m. ET but Nila's body was not recovered until about six hours later.
Nila's family said he was doing routine work to fill small holes in a field at Sossaman Farms when the sinkhole, about 50 feet wide and at least 15 feet deep, opened up.
"He was probably poking (the ground) too much, and that’s when everything just came down," said Josephine Ruiz, one of Nila's daughters.
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Nila was a loving husband, father of eight and grandfather who celebrated his 60th birthday in January, Ruiz said. He was the sole provider for his family, and his daughters say the owners of Sossaman Farms have stepped in to provide financial help.
Queen Creek is about 40 miles southeast of Phoenix.
The family also is calling the woman who witnessed the accident a hero.
"To her: Thank you, you know, because if it hadn’t been for her, we never would’ve found out," Ruiz said. Arrangements for Nila's funeral, which will be next week, are still being finalized.
Contributing: Trisha Hendricks, KPNX-TV, Phoenix. Follow Charly Edsitty on Twitter: @CharlyEdsitty
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