By Michelle Hunter
The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
METAIRIE, La. — A man digging a trench at a Metairie church spent more than three minutes buried in mud Wednesday afternoon when the trench collapsed.
The 27-year-old worker was rescued by firefighters and taken to East Jefferson General Hospital. His condition was not immediately known.
He was one of three Coastal Fire Protection LLC workers installing a water main alongside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5025 Cleveland Place, said George Rigamer, spokesman for the East Bank Consolidated Fire Department.
The workers had excavated a narrow, six-foot-deep trench when its walls collapsed. Two of the workers escaped, but the third man was trapped under 1 1/2 feet of mud, Rigamer said.
He was buried for more than three minutes and lost consciousness as his co-workers tried to dig him out. They managed only to free his head.
“He was still stuck in the hole and could not move,” Rigamer said.
Firefighters could not use heavy equipment because of the unstable ground. They used a “trenching technique” to shore the walls before digging him out by hand at about 3 p.m. Rigamer said.
The man was conscious and talking when he was taken to the hospital.
“Everything kind of clicked,” Rigamer said. “Quick thinking by his co-workers and the techniques employed by the firefighters.”
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company