The crew of 31 were approximately 400 feet underground inside the industrial tunnel that caved in as they worked on the $700 million project, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts spokesperson Michael Chee said the incident happened between the boring machine that is located five miles inside the tunnel and the crew. The AP article continued:
The tunnel is being constructed almost entirely underneath public right-of-way. The structure is 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide and will be 7 miles (11.3 kilometers) long to carry treated wastewater from across Los Angeles County to the Pacific Ocean.
Firefighters said workers had to climb over 12 to 15 feet (3.6 meters to 4.5 meters) of fallen dirt and debris to reach the tunnel boring machine and then were transported back to the opening. Some people had to be pulled out.
A chief engineer with the county’s sanitation districts said prior to the rescues, it was a “tense situation,” WPTV reported.
“Anytime you have a collapse in a tunnel behind you, there was only one way out at that time, it’s to come back here to the shaft, so they had to come back and make their way through the damaged section of the tunnel. It was very scary, as I just want to reiterate, we’re very fortunate no one was hurt,” Robert Ferrante said.
Video footage shows the moments the construction crew members were lifted out of the tunnel to safety:
Ferrante said the crew was operating the boring machine when the incident happened.
“A section that they have already built had squeezing ground and had a collapse, a partial collapse,” he explained.
In a social media post just before midnight on Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) said, “LAFD has just reported that all workers who were trapped in the tunnel in Wilmington are now out and accounted for. I just spoke with many of the workers who were trapped. Thank you to all of our brave first responders who acted immediately. You are L.A.’s true heroes.”
According to ABC 7, there is only one way out of the tunnel and rescuers called the delicate operation to save the crew “highly technical” and “difficult”:
Over 100 Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) crew members helped in the rescue, per the WPTV article.
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