Max Reinhart
The Detroit News
(TNS)
Two workers who were digging a trench to replace a sewer line at a Wyandotte home became stuck Tuesday after the it collapsed, with one man remaining in the ditch for more than four hours.
Wyandotte Fire Chief Jeremy Moline said both men were in stable condition after they had been freed Tuesday night. One man was stuck in the dirt for hours before he was freed.
Moline said first responders were called to a home in the area of 17th and Vinewood streets at about 6:47 p.m.
DR Drummond said he was one of three men working to dig a trench to replace a sewer line at a home. He was spotting while the other two men were in the hole.
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Drummond said the hole was about 10- to 12-feet deep while Moline estimated it was closer to 20 feet deep.
The crew was wrapping up for the day, Drummond said, when the ground softened, a support pole started moving and within seconds, the claylike soil filled in around them.
“By the time I yelled, it was all coming down,” he said.
Drummond called 911, and crews arrived within minutes. One man was removed “pretty quickly” Moline said. The other was stuck up to his waist in mud until he was freed at about 11 p.m.
Extricating the second man required a “multi-jurisdictional effort,” the chief said, including equipment from the Western Wayne Urban Search and Rescue Team, which was necessary to shore up the hole to avoid further collapse. Also at the scene were a Survival Flight helicopter; Farmington Hills Urban Search and Rescue; Wyandotte Municipal Services; and several fire departments.
“They communicated with our crews the whole time. We were just fortunate to be able to get him out,” Moline said.
Drummond described the man who was stuck for hours as a lifelong Metro Detroit resident in his mid-40s whose brother owns the company for which they work, A&D Plumbing.
“I panicked,” he said. “I never saw nothing like this happen. Especially not that fast. I’ve seen some things go wrong, but that really shook me.”
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