LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A drone photo provided by Deputy Mayor David James shows a yellow hard hat buried in a pit of debris. That helmet is the head of the construction worker who fell nearly 12 ft into a void space, completely buried, but with a small space to breathe.
"They dug down probably six to eight inches before they came to that hard hat," said Louisville Fire Department Chief Brian O'Neill, recounting the harrowing moments of the near nine hour rescue. "Now they know where he is."
The hard hat signaled to Louisville Fire where to find the construction worker among the debris.
"There's so much weight pushing in, but there was enough to breathe around," O'Neill told WHAS11 News. "He was just very fortunate that it wasn't crushing his chest and his lungs."
The rescue happened at 8:26 p.m. on Thursday.
"Eventually he got his cell phone, which also didn't break, out of his pocket and he was able to call his family," O'Neill said.
It was an intense week for Louisville Fire.
There was an explosion at the Givaudan factory in the Clifton neighborhood on Tuesday that killed two employees.
"Two of our citizens lost their lives on Tuesday in this horrible explosion," O'Neill said. "We had this gentleman yesterday, to where although it was a successful rescue, it started with a terrible tragedy. A traumatic event where this man was trapped for such a long time."
The nail-biting rescue from the rubble happened at the former Community Corrections center, now an active demolition site for the new "LOUMed" medical complex downtown on East Chestnut Street.
"We've seen trench rescues where a person is only buried up to their waist and it's still fatal," O'Neill said. "Here, you had a person completely buried, and yet they were able to be successful. So, you can never take anything for granted."
O'Neill said the latest he heard about the condition of the man trapped in the debris is that he's still in the hospital but is recovering.
The chief said a successful rescue can never be certain.
"This is about as bad as it could get for a trench collapse, a confined space rescue," O'Neill said.
But, O'Neill said it's a response with the fire crew that he will certainly remember.
"If I'm looking back at this, sitting in my rocking chair and hopefully sipping on a good glass of Kentucky bourbon, I just want to have that tremendous pride that I was fortunate enough to serve alongside the men and women of the Louisville Fire Department," O'Neill said.
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