LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A construction worker is in the hospital after being buried for hours underneath rubble at a construction site, thanks to Louisville Fire.
Louisville Fire Chief Brian O'Neill said the construction worker fell into a "void space."
"And when they fell down, basically a floor gave way beneath them," he said. "They fell down into an area and then all kinds of rubble and dirt and rock completely buried this individual."
The chief said the worker did end up having some space around him to breathe while being surrounded by gravel, dirt and concrete.
Firefighters ended up having to remove all that material by hand.
"Because every time you move some small bit, you have more stuff that's falling in," O'Neill said. "Think about a person at the base of a funnel, and that funnel keeps pouring things down onto them."
MSD provided a vacuum truck to help get rid of some of the smaller rocks and dirt, and he said they used propane tanks to help make a mini heater to pump hot air into the hole to keep the worker comfortable.
The crane was used as a "high point" during the rescue so they could get a harness around the worker "that way we could take some of the weight off of him."
"This is a very long, very tedious, very slow going process to do it safely to make sure that you do not cause additional injury to the individual and slowly get them out," he said.
An EMS worker ended up going into the hole after it was deemed it safe so they could take the worker's vitals, set up an IV and provide them with food and water.
O'Neill said the construction worker was conscious and with the firefighters the entire time, and even went so far as to try and help dig himself out; the chief described him as "tremendously brave."
After the fatal explosion in the Clifton neighborhood this week, O'Neill said this was a "tempered celebration because it was a tragedy in the first place."
"This is what our firefighters do; this is why we took this job, we want to help people," the chief said. "It's been a week, it has been; but again, this is what we get this job for."
Mayor Craig Greenberg said he got in touch with the construction worker's mother and kept her updated throughout the day.
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