A woman in Northern Virginia, who has racked up millions of social media views on TikTok by building a tunnel system under her home, has been ordered to stop her work — at least for now.
The town where she lives has put a pause on the project.
“They did give me a stop work order and are requiring an immediate evaluation by a professional engineer,” said the woman, who goes by “Kala” on TikTok.
The town, which Kala asked WTOP not to name, confirmed that an on-site inspection was recently performed, and that the town is working with Kala “to correct any violations and ensure that the property is safe and in compliance with the code.”
Kala said in a recent video that she was confident that she would ultimately be able to continue.
“It is constructed entirely below the slab of my house,” Kala said. “It shouldn’t be too hard to get the permits and approval, so we’ll be working on that.”
Like an extreme home improvement project, Kala’s videos thoroughly document the process of her building the tunnel system under her home.
She uses heavy equipment to dig, move huge amounts of dirt, work with concrete and reinforce the tunnel.
Some of Kala’s videos have between 4 and 7 million views, and she has more than 500,000 followers on TikTok.
“The main chamber is 22 feet below ground,” Kala said.
In September 2017, a residential tunnel project turned deadly in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Khafra had been digging tunnels under Beckwitt’s Bethesda home for an underground bunker — intended for surviving a nuclear attack — when a fire broke out in the home.
Khafra was unable to escape.
The victim had worked in the tunnels for days at a time, eating and sleeping in there. The tunnels had lights, an air circulation system and a heater.
