Crews respond to workers trapped in collapsed trench in West Fargo

WEST FARGO – Firefighters pulled a grimacing construction worker out of a trench where he had been buried up to his waist after wall of clay collapsed on him Wednesday morning.
It appeared both of the worker’s legs were injured in the accident, which required specially equipped and trained firefighters from Fargo, said West Fargo Fire Chief Dan Fuller.
Another worker was trapped up to his knee, but appeared to suffer only minor injuries.
The accident happened about 10:40 a.m. when firefighters were dispatched to 311 15th St. N.W., just north of the Caterpillar plant. The chief said it took 34 minutes to complete the rescue of both men, who were then taken to the hospital.
Capt. Chris Pieper with Fargo’s Regional Technical Rescue Response team said his firefighters had to be careful not to get buried themselves because their safety equipment was not wide enough to stabilize the large trench.
Deep pit
The workers, from All Finish Concrete of Moorhead, were setting up forms to pour the footings for the new home of a business called EZ Open Garage Door, according to West Fargo officials.
The trench was more like a large pit 15 feet deep and about 34 feet wide at its narrowest, dug on the south side of a half-finished building. The worker with the most-serious injury had been in the pit near a 2-foot-by-10-foot panel in a concrete form. When the north wall of the trench sloughed off, it caused the panel to turn on its side and apparently break his shin and calf bones, Pieper said.
Fuller said his department will look into whether the workers were too far down to be without equipment used to prevent such collapses.
Kim Stadsvold, a receptionist at All Finish Concrete, said the company didn’t have comments about the incident but added the two workers are “100 percent OK.”
A search of Occupational Safety and Health Administration records did not reveal any enforcement action against the company.
Dangerous rescue
Typically in a trench collapse, rescuers place panels on the walls and reinforce them with struts to prevent further collapse. But the trench in West Fargo was too wide for the struts the technical rescue team had on hand.
“It makes it extremely dangerous because we couldn’t put panels in place,” Pieper said. “We needed to stay away from the excavated wall.”
It took firefighters about 15 minutes to dig through just a foot of soil, he said. “The clay was so heavy and it’s so sticky. We had to cut that 2-by-10 with a saw to free his foot.”
Fuller said the city’s building inspector and city engineer will look at the site to determine if it’s safe to continue work there. The collapse exposed the footings of the half-finished building and that may make the trench unsafe, he said.
So far this year, Pieper said his team has only been called out about three to four times. Most contractors use safety equipment to shore up trenches or make a wide enough hole to prevent collapse.