Jackie Smith – mlive.com
FORESTER TOWNSHIP, MI – A man installing underground pipes at a campground close to Lake Huron in Michigan’s Thumb died after a trench wall fell, partially burying him late Wednesday.
WJRT-TV reported the man was identified by the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration as a 34-year-old senior foreman pipefitter who’d been working in a crew at the Jellystone Campground just north of Port Sanilac in Sanilac County.
The Sanilac East Fire Authority responded to reports that the worker was eight feet below ground at around 4:40 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, when part of the dirt wall collapsed.
When Sanilac firefighters arrived at the campground, 2353 N. Lakeshore Road, in Forester Township, the TV station reported that other contractors were in the trench digging the victim out. But there were no signs of life when the pipefitter’s head and chest were exposed.
Emergency crews paused rescue attempts as the trench was found to be too unstable.
Requested assistance from technical rescue teams in Huron and Macomb counties arrived three hours later. After the trench walls were shored up, another rescue attempt was launched at 9:30 p.m..
WMIC/WTGV reported the man was later removed from the trench and turned over to Sanilac EMS and the Sanilac County medical examiner.
The incident remains under investigation with MIOSHA.
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