Update: COLLEGEDALE, HAMILTON COUNTY (WRCB) – After close to three and a half hours of work, rescue crews have pulled a trapped man from a collapsed trench on Heathwood Drive.
The man was pulled from the trench around 12:50 a.m. Thursday.
A 19-year-old man installing sewer lines in Ooltewah was buried Wednesday night after the side of a 20-foot-deep trench collapsed.
When the collapse occurred about 9:15 p.m. on Heathwood Drive, the man was completely covered in dirt but managed to get his head out, said Amy Maxwell, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County Emergency Management Services.
By 11 p.m., rescue workers had removed the dirt down to about his waist, she said.
His name has not been released, she said.
“Right on the edge of where that trench is is where all this loose dirt had broke loose and started to cave inside the trench,” Ms. Maxwell said. “As a result, he was completely covered.”
A doctor was with him throughout the process, Ms. Maxwell said, and gave him medication to relax him and reduce anxiety.
Five other men were in the trench when it collapsed, she said, but they got out safely.
The trench is being built by Allied Civil Contractors of Chattanooga for a new subdivision named Montt Winfield.
Freeing the man was a slow process because workers removing the dirt from around the trapped man must take steps to make sure the trench didn’t collapse again, Ms. Maxwell said.
About 150 EMS personnel were on the scene, she said. They had blocked off Ooltewah-Ringgold Road near Heathwood Drive and were redirecting traffic.