Recreation, then devastation: Medical crews at Lonz put to test

MIDDLE BASS ISLAND

Virginia Mamere, a long-time ER nurse, lounged with a friend on the lawn outside Lonz Winery the afternoon of July 1, 2000.

She basked in the sun and listened to the band, waiting for a fellow nurse’s bachelorette celebration to begin.

“It was a day like today — just gorgeous,” Mamere said Wednesday. 

Not long after Mamere settled into the grass, a young man came over and said there had been an accident. Anyone with medical training needed to come to the other side of the winery. 

“We were looking at each other like, ‘What is he talking about?’” Mamere recalled. “I remember walking around and there it was in front of us. There was a huge hole in front of us.”

What she saw in the pit was something that would haunt her for weeks and years to come. 

Read the full story in Friday's Register, and read more about the Lonz Winery tragedy in this four-day series: 

Thursday
- The victims remember and state officials ponder the property's future 

Friday
- Emergency response and lessons learned 

Saturday
- What went wrong? Who had to pay? 

Sunday 
- Tragedy echoes in island's life and business

Click on the PDF's below to read police incident reports from the day of the collapse.

Related File(s): 

List of victims at Lonz terrace collapse (1 of 2 pages)

List of victims at Lonz terrace collapse (2 of 2 pages)

Deputy's report on Lonz terrace collapse (1 of 1 pages)

Put-in-Bay police report on Lonz collapse (1 of 1 pages)

Put-in-Bay police report No. 2 (1 of 2 pages)

Put-in-Bay police report No. 2 (2 of 2 pages)