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Three People Buried By Falling Snow In Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE (CBS) - Three people were buried when a massive amount of snow fell off a Cambridge ice rink Wednesday night.

Cambridge Police say four adults were walking down the sidewalk next to the rink when the snow fell. Three were brothers from Cambridge, officials said.

Dan Delongchamp was the first person on scene and started digging. "I want to say it was five minutes of terror," Delongchamp said. "Digging in the snow trying to find somebody, it was terrible."

Delongchamp, of Somerville, was riding his bike near the rink when the snow fell.

Cambridge Snow
Two people were buried under a pile of snow that fell off the roof of the Simoni Ice Rink in Cambridge, Feb. 18, 2015. (Photo by Karen Twomey-WBZ NewsRadio 1030)

"We kept shoveling, kept shoveling, and finally I reached down and I felt something soft, and said this isn't snow, and it was him," Delongchamp said.

A 34-year-old man and 20-year-old woman, both of Cambridge - were stuck under the weight of five feet of snow.

Angelo Ciardiello and his crew were around the corner removing snow for the City of Somerville when they learned of the emergency at the nearby Simoni Ice Rink in Cambridge.

"I'd never seen anything like that," Ciardiello said. "They were buried up to their chest. They were panicked, they were scared."

"I don't think they had any warning," Cambridge Police Deputy Superintendent Jack Albert said. "This came right down on top of them, literally."

It was a significant amount of snow that fell on them.

"We started at one end of the building with one loader and the other end of the building with another loader and we tried to get to them," Ciariello said.

Police say both were hurt, but not badly.

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