Rescue in Louisville: Trapped worker rescued from rubble after construction accident in Kentucky, fire officials say

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Firefighters in Kentucky’s largest city rescued a person trapped under rubble at a construction site near the city’s center during an hours-long operation Thursday.

The rescue effort was broadcast live on local television stations in Louisville, hours after the construction worker fell into a void around noon Thursday and some debris fell on him. Paramedics attended to place the worker on a stretcher, cover him with a blanket and transport him under bright lights to an ambulance set up to assist the rescue.

One rescuer patted the worker on the back as he was lifted out.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg praised the rescue team for “saving the life of an individual who had been in grave danger all day today.”

Greenberg said rescuers had an “incredibly difficult trench rescue.” He said the Louisville Fire Department team “shone again today and saved this individual” who was transported to the University of Louisville Hospital.

Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill previously reported that the worker had spoken to rescuers but was unable to move. The worker was about 10 to 12 feet (3 to 3.7 meters) underground, O’Neill said.

After the rescue, O’Neill said the construction worker was part of a demolition team working at the site and fell into an “empty area.”

“All kinds of debris, dirt and rock completely buried this person,” he said, leaving him not only trapped but “completely buried.”

The team, which specializes in trench and confined space rescue, arrived within minutes and “they were able to talk to him,” O’Neill said. “He was very fortunate to have a little empty space around him so he could breathe.”

Rescue workers continued to work after nightfall on Thursday evening to free the worker. Officials had a crane and ladders going into the hole, which was several feet wide.

The fire chief said the worker was buried and pinned in place by gravel, dirt and large chunks of concrete, requiring them to dig out the rubble by hand and clear the area around the man’s arms and chest so he could receive medical attention could get.

There were five other workers on site when the man fell. They were working on the site of a former corrections building that is being demolished to make way for a medical campus.

The fire chief called it a “very long, very tedious and very slow process to do it safely, to make sure you don’t cause any additional harm to the individual.”

“All the credit goes to the firefighters here in Louisville,” O’Neill said. “The men and women of the Louisville Fire Department who came here used their skills, used their talents, used their absolute tenacity to get in there and dig that person out.”

Earlier this week, just a few miles away, a factory in Louisville exploded, killing two workers and damaging dozens of nearby homes. The cause of the explosion is not yet known.