By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-15 16:49:50 | Updated at 2024-11-22 08:44:51
6 days ago
Dramatic footage captured the moment a Kentucky construction worker was heroically saved after being buried alive for over nine hours.
Rescue teams worked into the night on Thursday after a laborer fell into a 10-foot-deep 'void' on a site in Louisville and became trapped under deep rubble.
Incredible footage showed workers sifting through concrete to unearth the construction worker when only the top of his hard hat was visible, and officials said he had just a 'little bit' of space to keep breathing for hours on end.
Crews used buckets and worked by hand for hours, and the victim - who has not been identified - remained conscious throughout the ordeal until he was lifted out on a stretcher.
Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill said the laborer was 'completely buried' under the construction rubble, and was 'in a lot of pain' when eventually saved from the hole.
He was hospitalized at the University of Louisville Hospital. The extent of his injuries remains unclear but the worker is reportedly expected to recover.
O'Neill added: 'We've seen a lot of trench rescues over the 24 years that I've been doing this... I've never seen something like this.
'This is a pretty severe incident.'
Rescue teams worked for over nine hours on a construction site in Louisville, Kentucky on Thursday after a laborer was buried alive by 10-feet of rubble
Incredible footage showed workers sifting through concrete to unearth the construction worker when only the top of his hard hat was visible
The laborer who fell into the void was working on a site's demolition team when he fell into the hole around noon on Thursday.
As rescue crews worked for hours to dig him out, local Louisville news stations arrived on the scene and began live streaming the heroic efforts.
Five other men were with the victim when he fell into the hole, and after alerting authorities, a search team specializing in trench and confined space rescues were on the scene within minutes, reports K105.
O'Neill said the victim was 'very fortunate' in the way that the void collapsed around him, because he had a 'little bit of void space around him so he was able to breathe.'
Footage showed teams passing buckets of rubble out of the hole in a painstaking process that took over nine hours, and O'Neill said the situation was made more challenging by the loose debris.
'We are moving tons and tons of debris by hand, by buckets,' O'Neill told reporters at the scene, describing his department's efforts.
'Imagine a person at the bottom of a funnel. You have to shore up everything else that’s going to keep cascading down to create a safe space and then continue to dig this person out.'
Eventually, authorities were able to use a crane and ladders to free the man from the hole, and he was finally stretchered away around 8:30pm.
O'Neill said the situation was made more challenging by the loose debris, and said crews had to 'shore up everything else that’s going to keep cascading down to create a safe space and then continue to dig this person out'
The victim, who has not been identified, was lifted onto a stretcher and hospitalized with injuries. Although the extent of his injuries is not known, he is reportedly expected to recover
Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill said 'over the 24 years that I've been doing this... I've never seen something like this'
O'Neill said there was a 'tempered celebration' when the worker was lifted to safety, and said not all of their efforts have such a happy ending.
'This is what our firefighter's do, this is why we took this job, we want to help people,' he concluded.
'And it's not like the movies, you're not always successful. So when you have a success like this, it is a tremendous feeling.'
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg later described it as 'an incredibly difficult trench rescue.'
