Crews Finally Recover Body From Collapsed Trench In Grosse Pointe Woods
GROSSE POINTE WOODS (WWJ) - Emergency crews have finally recovered the body of a construction worker who was killed when the trench he was working in collapsed in Grosse Pointe Woods.
The body of Leland Rumph, 59, was removed from the trench around 5:40 a.m. Friday.
Rumph was digging a 20-foot deep sewer line around noon Wednesday for a new home on Fairway Street, in the area of Mack and Moross, when the earth around him collapsed. Rumph was buried with heavy clay to the mid-chest area but was conscious when emergency crews arrived. As rescuers were trying to free Rumph, a second collapsed occurred.
Rumph was killed in the second collapse. One of two rescuers in the trench was also injured. He is being treated at a local hospital for spinal and neck injuries, but is expected to recover.
Crews were unable to remove Rump's body Wednesday and had to remove part of the road Thursday to prevent any further collapses while trying to retrieve his remains. After creating a trench box, workers used a crane to drop a basket into the trench and retrieve the body, which was then transferred to a stretcher and taken away from the scene. The entire rescue took nearly 48 hours.
"This is probably one of the most difficult operations, I think, we've ever been involved in, certainly," said Shadd Whitehead, special operations chief for Wayne County. "Over the years, we've had trench incidents but nothing that has challenged us in this way."
The exact cause of the tragic collapse is not yet known.
Grosse Pointe Woods Public Safety Director Al Fincham said Rumph, who owned Rumph Construction in Sterling Heights, wasn't following Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) rules, failing to use safety equipment as required at such sites.
"You have to have a hole that's wide enough to accommodate the proper slope and grade of the soil you're working in," said Fincham, "and you have to have the proper shoring, or plywood if you will, on the sides; or metal, for whatever type of configuration of equipment that you have — a trench box as an example — and there was none of that here."
The county medical examiner, who was on site during the recovery process, said Rumph's remains were well-preserved due to the wet soil surrounding his body. An autopsy is expected to reveal an exact cause of death.
Gary Jarecz, who called Rumph his best friend, said he's still having trouble comprehending the loss.
"I will miss him dearly," he said, getting emotional. "It's such a tragic loss. I'm trying to be here just to let the family know what went on. He knows a lot of construction people and has a million family and friends."
Jarecz said he has worked with Rumph in the construction business for the past few decades.
"I was building homes for a living and Lee's done my work since 1983," he said. "He was good at [what he did]. You know, it was probably one of the worst lots he's worked on. He had no idea, when he started to dig, you know, he thought it was sand that he would be digging into and it turned out to be clay. That's all the difference in the world in how the job went."
Jarecz's brother Allen said watching the rescuers work was quite a sight to behold.
"Most of the digging in this clay was done with their bare hands because they didn't want to do anything undignified. Even with the large equipment that you see, all that clay was brought off of him, into the buckets and then carried out by the excavator," he said.
The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the incident remains under investigation.
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