Rescuers Save Worker Stuck In Drainage Ditch He Was Digging
IRVING (CBSDFW.COM) - First responders rescued a worker in Irving who was trapped while digging a drainage ditch alongside a commercial building when the dirt collapsed.
Several fire trucks from the Irving Fire Department and Coppell Fire Department converged in the parking lot Monday afternoon and set up by the trench. Technical rescue teams worked furiously in the dirt in sweltering heat to help the worker who was trapped up to his waist.
The man was conscious and talking to rescuers during their efforts.
A fire department official said that other workers reported hearing a noise that alarmed them and suddenly the soil gave way. Too often, they said, such scenes turn into recovery rather than rescue missions because collapsing soil is so dangerous.
"One cubic yard of soil can weigh up to 2000 pounds and when we have sloughing, what we call breaking lose of the soil, it can move at a speed of 45 miles per hour. And a human can't get out of the way of the that, and when it starts to fall, it falls extremely quickly," explained Chief J. Taylor with the Irving Fire Department. "Normally if it catches someone above the waist or around the lungs, it just squeezes you, as you exhale it just squeezes you until you can't breathe."
Rescue teams used equipment that acted like a huge vacuum to pull the soil away from the worker, loosening it up, helping to free him faster.
