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Mass. woman rescued from cave twice

About 40 responders came to the scene to free Maya Hersh from 8-foot chasm

By Laura Crimaldi
The Boston Herald

LEVERETT, Mass. — A 25-year-old spelunker was rescued from a western Massachusetts cave yesterday — for the second time, much to the annoyance of authorities who have spent at least $4,000 to save her.

“If this had been her first time, OK. Crap happens. But she got stuck once and she went down the same hole,’' said Amherst Fire Chief Tim Nelson. “We’re going to do what it takes to get her out..but at the same time, you put some very skilled guys in harm’s way because you pulled a bonehead move.’'

Maya Hersh became trapped at about 1 p.m. Monday in an 8-foot chasm located 30 feet below the surface of a Leverett recreation area. Her family tried to free her before calling firefighters at 6 p.m.

Nelson said 35 to 40 rescuers, including members of the Amherst technical rescue team, responded to the scene at the Rattlesnake Gutter Conservation Area. Hersh was freed at about 1:05 a.m. yesterday.

“I was like, this is not gonna happen — I’m gonna die down in this cave,’' Hersh said of her 12-hour ordeal in an interview with CBS 3 Springfield. “We tried for a really long time to pull me out ... but it just wasn’t happening.’'

Rescuers could only get within 2 feet of where Hersh was stuck, so they gave her an air chisel and stone hammer to flatten the jagged rock point trapping her. They also gave her olive oil to apply to her body to make it easier to free herself and a harness to put around her feet and push herself up.

“She was a major player in her own rescue,’' said Terry Dun, spokesman for the Franklin County Incident Management Assistance Team. “She did most of the hard work of chipping away with an air chisel.’'

Hersh, who Nelson said is originally from Leverett but has since moved to the West Coast, was grateful to her rescuers yesterday.

“I owe every one of those people my life,’' she said.

Copyright 2010 Boston Herald Inc.