Trapped worker rescued from trench

At one point buried up to his neck, a construction worker was rescued from a 20-foot-deep trench in South Richmond shortly after 9 last night. He had been trapped there for nearly six hours.

Officials had thought the rescue might take all night because the more they dug, the more the walls threatened to collapse further. At the end, rescue workers from Richmond and Henrico and Chesterfield counties had to dig him out by hand and send up the dirt bucket by bucket from the collapsed excavation.

Strapped to a gurney, the man was smiling as he was lifted from the hole. As he was being carried through the backyard of a nearby house, he gave a thumbs-up sign. Several dozen firefighters applauded as he reached the surface and was whisked away in an ambulance.

Officials declined to identify the man or his employer, but they said he is in his mid-50s and lives in South Richmond.

Richmond Fire Department spokesman Lt. Shawn L. Jones said the man was smiling, "very apologetic and grateful."

Jones said emergency crews were called at 3:16 p.m. to the 2700 block of Grantwood Court, where the man had been repairing a sewer line in the trench. The site is off Forest Hill Avenue west of Chippenham Parkway.

According to Richmond and Henrico fire officials, there was no apparent shoring up of the site when they arrived.

A fellow worker who had jumped in right after the collapse in the 4to 5-foot-wide trench had been able to free the trapped man down to his waist.

He was given an oxygen mask, administered fluids intravenously to ward off dehydration and covered in blankets as heat was pumped into the trench. Officials said their biggest fear was his long exposure to the cold in the ground.

They did not want to give him any food because they feared that might interfere with his treatment at a hospital.

Rescuers labored under a large piece of tarpaulin that was stretched between the roofs of two houses on either side of the trench to keep water from flowing into the hole from the on and off rain.

Firefighters had to shore up the walls of the hole to prevent further collapse, Jones said. Around 6 p.m., Jones had said, "We're in a race against time," although it appeared the man was not in serious danger and was conversing with rescuers.

About 30 pieces of fire and special rescue equipment were at the scene, and personnel included firefighters, police and technical rescue teams.

The sewer project is not one being conducted by Richmond Department of Public Utilities crews or contractors, spokeswoman Angela Fountain said.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .