By Bruce Schreiner and Tim Easley
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. 鈥� Firefighters in Kentucky鈥檚 largest city rescued a construction worker on a demolition team who fell into a void Thursday and became trapped in rubble, requiring a tedious, hourslong operation to dig him out.
The rescue was shown live on local Louisville television stations hours after the worker fell into a hole and debris fell on top of him around noon. Paramedics were on hand to place the worker onto a stretcher, cover him with a blanket and transport him to an ambulance.
One rescue worker patted the worker on the back as he was being hoisted out.
Louisville Fire Chief Brian O鈥橬eill said the worker was conscious and alert when he was rescued after being 鈥渃ompletely buried鈥� 10 to 12 feet (3 to 3.7 meters) below ground. He said the worker hadn鈥檛 been able to move but was able to communicate in Spanish with multilingual members of the team.
鈥淗e was in a lot of pain,鈥� O鈥橬eill said. 鈥淭his is a pretty severe accident.鈥�
The worker was taken to the University of Louisville Hospital, where his injuries were being assessed.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg called it an 鈥渋ncredibly difficult trench rescue,鈥� and said he had met with the victim鈥檚 mother to update her on his condition. The family was waiting to see the man at the hospital Thursday night.
A hospital spokesperson did not respond immediately to an email query about the worker鈥檚 condition.
The man had been part of a demolition team working at the site and fell into what the fire chief described as a 鈥渧oid space.鈥� Five other workers were with him at the site of a former corrections building that is being demolished to make way for a medical campus.
The rescue team 鈥� specialized in trench rescue and confined space rescue 鈥� arrived within minutes, O鈥橬eill said.
鈥淗e got very fortunate that he had a little bit of a void space around him,鈥� O鈥橬eill said. 鈥淪o he was able to breathe.鈥�
The fire chief said the worker was buried and pinned in place by gravel, dirt and large chunks of concrete, which required the rescue team to dig him out by hand, clearing the area around the man鈥檚 arms and chest so he could receive medical aid. He said rescue workers also used a vacuum truck with a large pipe to suck up smaller debris, and they used propane tanks to push hot air into the hole to keep the worker warm.
鈥淲e are moving tons and tons of debris by hand, by buckets,鈥� O鈥橬eill said, describing the process. 鈥淚magine a person at the bottom of a funnel. You have to shore up everything else that鈥檚 going to keep cascading down to create a safe space and then continue to dig this person out.鈥�
Rescuers continued to work through Thursday evening after night fell. Officials had a crane and ladders going into the hole, which was several feet wide. The worker was freed around 8:30 p.m.
The fire chief called it a 鈥渧ery long, very tedious, very slow-going process to do it safely, to make sure that you do not cause additional injury to the individual.鈥�
Once the firefighters got the worker out, it was a 鈥渢empered celebration,鈥� O鈥橬eill said.
鈥淭his is what our firefighters do,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is why we took this job. We want to help people. And it鈥檚 not like the movies.鈥�
Earlier this week just a few miles away, a Louisville manufacturing plant exploded, killing two workers and damaging dozens of nearby homes. The cause of the explosion is not yet known.
