Aboveground Pool Bursts, Washing Woman Down Ravine

Custom pool builders have long held the aboveground pool in contempt. A cheap knockoff, they sneer. A novelty, they chide, and no substitute for the real thing!

While the category has evolved over the years from little more than temporary tin cans to more permanent, sturdier structures that can be thoughtfully blended within the landscape, stories of them busting and washing people down gullies do not do abovegrounds any favors.

That very thing happened to a woman in Tacoma, Wash. while she was cleaning the pool in her backyard. An estimated 5,000 gallons swept her 30 feet down a tree-filled ravine, covering her in woody debris, according to the News Tribune.

Tacoma Fire Chief Joe Meinecke described the rescue as "very difficult." The victim was conscious during the extraction.

The woman was transported to the hospital with unknown injuries.