It
was one of the longest trench rescues in recent
memory, but after firefighters worked
professionally and carefully for more than six
hours, a San Bernardino man emerged alive and
free of major injuries from a 15-foot hole in a
Muscoy back yard, where he had been buried to
his neck under tons of dirt and cinder blocks.
About 50 firefighters responded after first
reports of the incident at 12:16 p.m. Friday,
May 11. The victim had been working in the
bottom of the hole, the beginning of a septic
tank installation, along with a backhoe
operator. At the rim of the hole were two pallet
loads of cinder block. Without warning, the
soil and blocks at the top of the hole collapsed
onto the victim.
Using specialized Urban Search and Rescue (USAR)
methods, County firefighters, assisted by
firefighters from the city of San Bernardino and
Rialto, s
hored
up the sides of the hole to prevent further
cave-ins, and then, using workshop-size vacuum
cleaners and their own hands, removed dirt and
brick from around the victim.
Paramedics, meanwhile, monitored the victim's
condition and administered oxygen, because the
weight of the debris on the victim made
breathing difficult. The victim remained
conscious and communicated with firefighters
throughout the effort.
Meanwhile, Battalion Chief Dan Odom, the
incident commander, worked with dispatchers at
the CONFIRE Communications Center to locate a
large vacuum truck that could accelerate the
process of removing dirt and debris. Late in
the afternoon, they located a truck, which
received a County Sheriff's police escort to the
scene from Grand Terrace. The truck's vacuum
apparatus made relatively quick work of clearing
remaining dirt and debris from around the
victim. Using a "ladder gin," a pulley
attached to fire ladder anchored to the backhoe,
firefighters then hoisted the victim, who was
attached to a harness, to the surface at about
6:30 p.m.
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