Two workers, who were trapped underneath loose soil after the earth caved in during an excavation to lay a sewage pipe in Sreekaryam, were rescued by the Kerala Fire and Rescue Service on Sunday. The fire force team held a tricky operation that lasted over four hours.
Vinayan, 54, of Ayirooppara, and Deepak, 24, of Bihar, were trapped after one side of a 15-foot-deep and 1.5-metre-wide pit had collapsed around 10 a.m.
While Vinayan, who was partially buried, was soon rescued and shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital, the rescuers of the fire force team faced an uphill battle in rescuing Deepak, who appeared to have been fully buried. They managed to remove the soil that covered his face and provide him oxygen support from a cylinder.
However, the presence of clay, silt, and run-off water complicated the rescue operation. Facing the threat of a further cave-in as the water flow increased, the fire force team lost no time in removing the soil manually. They finally managed to retrieve the migrant worker after a painstaking operation and rushed him to the hospital.
