EL RIO : Girl, 3, Still Critical After Fall Into Tank

A 3-year-old girl who fell down a narrow opening into her family’s back-yard septic tank in El Rio remained hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday, officials said.

Firefighters pulled Amy Rocha from the underground tank Tuesday evening after she had been submerged for 10 to 15 minutes. The toddler was unconscious and not breathing when paramedics resuscitated her.

After being rushed to St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Amy was transferred to Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara where she remained on a respirator in the pediatric intensive care unit, according to relatives and hospital officials.

The accident occurred while Amy’s grandfather, Vincente Gutierrez, was digging up the three concrete covers that seal the septic tank entrances in preparation for the tanks being emptied.

Amy, who had been playing with two older brothers, slipped into one of the openings while her grandfather was briefly distracted, relatives said.

“When they couldn’t find her, they just assumed she had fallen,” the girl’s uncle said.

In El Rio, about 1,800 homes rely on underground cesspools or septic tanks to dispose of household sewage, said Jim Wada, a county environmental health specialist.

Septic tanks, which have been required in all new construction in Ventura County since at least 1977, divert water from the system into a leech line or seepage pit.

The tank that Amy fell in, which had an opening of about nine inches across, does not conform with state regulations, which now require openings with a minimum 20-inch diameter. But Wada said the septic tank does not violate the code because it was installed before the new rules were in place.