Sinkhole in Guatemala

*GUATEMALA CITY**, **Guatemala* - A 330-foot-deep sinkhole killed at least
two teenagers as it swallowed about a dozen homes early Friday and forced
the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City
neighborhood. Officials blamed the sinkhole on recent rains and an
underground sewage flow from a ruptured main.

The pit emitted foul odors, loud noises and tremors, shaking the surrounding
ground. A rush of water could be heard from its depths, and authorities
feared it could widen or others could open up.

Rescue operations were on hold until a firefighter, suspended from a cable,
could take video and photos above the hole and officials could use the
documentation to decide how to proceed.

The dead were identified as Irma and David Soyos, emergency spokesman Juan
Carlos Bolanos said. Their bodies were found near the sinkhole, floating in
a river of sewage.

Their father, Domingo, was still missing, according to disaster coordinator
Hugo Hernandez.

Firefighters on high

Imagine taking a drug test of people on government rolls, and finding that most of them tested positive; further imagine that this drug test was held after they had completed a job, and still they tested positive. Indignation would go high, and there would be screams of investigations, suspensions and firing of these people.
Now imagine that people got high on a job. Well, that has happened. Firefighters reporting to a fire in a wareouse also had around 2,000 pounds of marijuana burnt, and the fumes of these drugs were so strong, that even after protective masks, the fire fighters inhaled enough marijuana fumes to reach a condition where they would have failed drug tests:

Firefighters who spent half an hour fighting a blaze in which 2,000 pounds of marijuana went up in smoke breathed so much of it that they would have failed a drug test, a fire chief said.
Snider said Thursday the firefighters were exposed to so much marijuana smoke that they would not be able to pass a drug test, despite wearing air packs to prevent them from inhaling toxic or hazardous fumes.

This is also another sign of how much people are dedicated to doing the jobs that make us safe. Firemen have volunteered to enter fires from which people are desperate to escape, in order to do their duty of rescuing people trapped, and to put out the fire.