Girl gets stuck in drain trying to retrieve phone

A teenage girl had to be rescued by firefighters after getting stuck in a storm drain while trying to retrieve her mobile phone.

Sixteen-year-old Ella Birchenough, squeezed down the hole after dropping her phone on Eaves Road, Dover, Kent, but quickly became stuck.

A witness was driving home with his mother when he saw Ella up to her waist in the drain. “It’s not the type of thing you see every day,” said Tim Richards, a mobile phone shop employee. “It was pretty weird. She was more concerned about getting her phone back rather than getting herself out of the drain.”

He said, “we tried to pull her out a couple of times but it wasn’t happening. She was quite calm and relaxed and saw the funny side of it.

“The drain was no more than a foot-and-a-half both ways. How she thought she was going to get her phone, I have no idea.”

A Kent Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said one fire engine was sent to deal with the incident at around 7.15pm yesterday. He said: “A teenage girl was released by firefighters from a storm

drain where she had become stuck in Eaves Road, Dover. “Crews then made the scene safe. The girl was uninjured.”

Ella’s efforts proved to be in vain — because the phone is broken.

PA