Three firefighters were injured during a successful trench rescue operation early Wednesday in New York City.
A worker on the Second Avenue Subway construction project was trapped 75 to 100 feet below grade level in a block-long trench, according to a CBS News report (http://cbsloc.al/10hR2ys).
Firefighters and other rescue personnel hoisted him out of the subway trench at Second Avenue and 95th Street at 12:41 a.m. He was on a stretcher when a crane pulled him up alongside two rescue workers.
A little while earlier, the worker had been pulled out of the chest-deep mud in the trench after being stuck for hours. Firefighters reportedly cut sheets of plywood at the scene in an effort to shore up the wet, muddy trench, using the sheets and two-by-fours to dig into the mud and retrieve the worker. Firefighters used a ladder that was poised over an open hole in the pavement, trying to rappel down to the worker.
The rescue effort began around 8:30 p.m., and more than 100 firefighters were sent to the scene. By 9:30 p.m., the fire crews had reached the worker successfully and confirmed he was alive. It took more than three hours to get him to the surface.
One firefighter broke his had during the operation; another was reportedly taken away on a stretcher with unspecified injuries. The news report also said another firefighter was hurt, but there was no word on those injuries.
Read additional details and see a video at http://cbsloc.al/10hR2ys.
