Worker spends hours buried in trench in CA heat wave. Then, he feels firefighter’s hand
When a trench collapsed at a California home and partially buried a construction worker, it would be hours before he would be freed.
Pinned by gravel and soil waist deep, the 24-year-old remained trapped in the 8-foot, 3-foot wide Los Feliz trench on Thursday, Sept. 5, as firefighters rushed to save him amid a sweltering heat wave, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a news release.
Firefighters arrived on scene shortly before 11 a.m. after getting a 911 call about the trench collapse in the home’s backyard, rescuers said.
The man was “conscious and alert” but “his lower body was severely trapped by a large volume of loose gravel and unstable soil,” rescuers said.
With temperatures reaching nearly 104 degrees Fahrenheit, scores of firefighters were called to the home to prevent the trench from collapsing further and “remove tons of earth and gravel with the aid of a pair of vacuum trucks,” rescuers said.
Dozens of firefighters worked nonstop in 10-minute rotations, rescuers said.
Then, six hours later, came “a powerful moment.”
A firefighter grasped the trapped man’s hand, “offering hope in the heat and struggle,” Erik Scott, a spokesperson for the department, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In “a marathon rescue effort,” firefighters managed to extract him from the trench, rescuers said.
At the outset, it appeared the man’s only injury was a fractured ankle; however, given “the pervasive pressure of soil within the trench,” he was listed in serious but stable condition after arriving at a hospital, rescuers said.
Two firefighters also suffered heat exhaustion during the rescue and one was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, rescuers said.
The State of California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) will investigate the trench collapse, according to rescuers.
This story was originally published September 6, 2024 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Worker spends hours buried in trench in CA heat wave. Then, he feels firefighter’s hand."
