Cave-In Traps Man Up to Neck in Hole

Firefighters worked more than seven hours Wednesday to dig out a construction worker trapped in a 24-foot hole in Pacoima after the rain-soaked dirt beneath him sank, plunging him into a ditch and pinning him neck deep between a metal plate and loose earth.

The 40-year-old worker, identified by friends as Art Garcia of La Puente, was working on a water pipeline project at San Fernando Road and Branford Street at about 3:45 p.m. when he became buried in dirt so thoroughly that only a hand, his head and his yellow construction helmet remained free.

Firefighters lowered an oxygen line into the hole and comforted him as they used a vacuum machine to suction out the soil around him. Late Wednesday night, his extrication was believed to be imminent.

A distraught Louis Nunez, who worked alongside Garcia for 11 years, described how Garcia was buried alive seconds after Nunez walked away from him. The men were among a team of workers for Sunland-based Mladen Buntich Construction Co. installing pipes for the final leg of a massive Department of Water and Power project.

Nunez said he turned away from Garcia and two DWP employees who were looking down into a ditch when he suddenly heard “hollering and screaming” behind him. He ran to the 10-by-30-foot ditch where a water pipe was being put down and saw the two DWP workers, five feet deep in sinking earth. Nunez said he helped the workers out, then noticed Garcia’s yellow construction helmet and hand sticking out from the ground.

“Please Lord, grab me!” Garcia told him, Nunez said.

Nunez walked deeper into the ditch and tried to remove the dirt around Garcia’s face and helmet as Garcia held his hand out toward him. Nunez handed Garcia a rope and told him to hang on. But Nunez said he realized he was placing himself in danger and climbed out.

“I wanted to desperately to take him out myself, but I couldn’t.” Nunez said. “I still feel bad, just to see someone like that and to let him go.”

Worried that vibrations from a nearby rail line would cause further collapse, authorities stopped a Metrolink train carrying 250 commuters from Los Angeles to Lancaster and called in five Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses to take them home.

Firefighters worked carefully, worried that sudden actions could make him slip deeper.

“To use a biblical image . . . it’s like Samson pushing against the pillars,” said Los Angeles City Fire Capt. Steve Ruda.

After four hours of work, firefighters began making progress, clearing the soil to Garcia’s shoulders, then his waist. They provided him with something to drink and he helped direct the rescue.

Two firefighters, suspended by harnesses, also hovered inside the hole, helping to guide the rescue. One firefighter emerged exhausted and had to be taken to a hospital.