Chatsworth sinkhole grows bigger as crews salvage wreckage amid leaking sewage

CHATSWORTH, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A sinkhole that opened up and swallowed two vehicles in Chatsworth on Monday was growing bigger Tuesday even as crews worked to salvage the wreckage and secure the site.

Tuesday night an excavator was able to pull the mangled debris of the wrecked vehicles out of the hole. A pipeline that also runs through the site was leaking raw sewage into the hole.
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The sinkhole had grown to more than 30 feet in diameter and was at least 40 feet deep.

The hole initially opened up on Iverson Road Monday night, swallowing up two vehicles. It came after several powerful storms hit Southern California dropping heavy rainfall, and triggering mud flows and flooding.

A woman and her teen daughter were in the first vehicle to fall and then a pickup truck landed on top of them.

The occupants of the pickup were able to escape on their own, but Los Angeles firefighters had to work carefully to rescue the woman and her daughter even as the ground continued to shift and destabilize under them.
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At the time, the hole was estimated at a depth of about 15 feet.

Sinkhole swallows 2 cars in Chatsworth, prompting rescue