> 18-year-old rescued from abandoned Colorado missile silo was trapped for hours

Good outcome.  There was a very good chance she could have been trapped for the rest of her life instead. 

Metro Denver search and rescue crews saved an 18-year-old woman who was trapped in an abandoned missile silo for about 4 hours early Wednesday morning, Colorado law enforcement officials said.

Crews from Sable Altura Fire Rescue, South Metro Fire Rescue and the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office responded to private property near the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds at 6 a.m. after two teenagers called 911 about a woman trapped in the silo, sheriff’s office spokesperson Ginger Delgado said.

Paramedics took the woman to the hospital, but additional information about her injuries was not immediately available. She was considered “nonemergent,” South Metro spokesperson Matthew Assell said.

The sheriff’s office is investigating the case as a trespassing and has not determined whether the three teenagers will face a citation or court summons, Delgado said.

The abandoned silo is one of several in Colorado and poses a serious danger, Sable Altura Fire Chief Rich Solomon said. Nuclear missile silos, decommissioned by the federal government after the Cold War, are hundreds of feet deep, completely dark and can contain unknown gases and other hazards.

“They are incredibly dangerous,” Solomon said. “It’s an unsafe environment and they need to be sealed up forever.”

Another teen who fell into the silo in 2024 was seriously injured, and Solomon said their life was “forever altered.”

“Death is 100% on the table” for people who try to enter the silos, Solomon said.