Man rescued from trench collapse
Published: March 14, 2005
Emergency crews Monday morning rescued a man trapped in a seven-foot trench in Clinton.
Crews say dirt fell onto 34-year old Mark Longmire while he was laying sewer lines near Charles G. Sievers Blvd.
The Clinton Fire Department got a call about the incident shortly after 9:00 a.m.
The Oak Ridge Fire Department assisted. As Cap. Todd Derrick explained, “They didn’t have the trench equipment that we have in Oak Ridge. We just basically mixed right into their operation and included our equipment as soon as it got here.”
“We were very fortunate,” Derrick said. “He was very lightly trapped. His lower extremities, he wasn’t very deep in the hole. Unlike a lot of trenches, we work around here, it takes a great deal more time. We were very fortunate on this one.”
Longmire talked to Clinton firefighters as they put the equipment from Oak Ridge to use. “They put the panels down on either side of him and shot these pneumatic shores, that’s what we call them, to hold the dirt back and then dug him out by hand,” Derrick said.
Crews say the clay in the trench was cold and wet, most likely from a downpour the night before.
Rescuers wanted to make sure hypothermia didn’t set in because temperatures were in the 30’s so they gave Longmire heat packs and blankets while he was trapped.
Anderson County EMS helped treat Longmire. He was transported to UT Medical Center by Lifestar.
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