x
Breaking News
More () »

Woman in Hospital After Cemetery Fence Rescue

HAZLETON — A woman who was impaled yesterday on a wrought-iron fence in Hazleton remains in the hospital tonight, but is expected to be okay. Fire officia...

HAZLETON -- A woman who was impaled yesterday on a wrought-iron fence in Hazleton remains in the hospital tonight, but is expected to be okay.

Fire officials said the woman was trying to hop the fence surrounding the Diamond Avenue Cemetery in Hazleton Tuesday. A spoke stabbed six inches deep into her thigh. Police have not released the woman's name.

Deputy Fire Chief Brian Mandak was one of the people who helped save the woman.

"It looked to me like she was stepping on the stump trying to crawl over the fence and lost her balance," Mandak said.

Ultimately, fire officials cut the fence around her instead of taking her off the spoke. They didn't want her to lose a lot of blood. Cemetery officals have since boarded that space with wood.

"They were afraid if they did take her off the fence, it would cause a serious issue. It was more important keeping the fence in place at that point," said Hazleton Fire Chief Donald Leshko. "We just advise anyone, if this does happen again, just come to the fence. Don't try to climb over those fences. It's definitely a very dangerous fence."

Officials don't seem to know why this woman tried to hop the fence, or what she was doing in the cemetery. Police aren't saying much at this time.

Neighbors in Hazleton can't believe what happened.

"I don't know. I think people are just stupid, doing stuff they shouldn't be doing, even though they can get in trouble for it," said John Simonson of Hazleton.

Before You Leave, Check This Out