Fire crews from Oakville and Mississauga rescued a worker buried in a trench collapse at a home under construction in Oakville, Ont. yesterday (Nov. 14).
“The co-ordinated efforts by all personnel and agencies involved resulted in a positive outcome to a very dangerous situation,” Oakville Fire Chief Paul Boissonneault wrote in an email to the Daily Commercial News.
The “high-hazard” incident occurred on a property on Lakeshore Road West. Oakville Fire responded to a reported trench/confined space rescue at approximately 5 p.m.
“One male construction worker had fallen into a trench and it collapsed around him, trapping him,” said Boissonneault. “Our personnel surveyed the situation and recognized the patient was talking and coherent and that a specialized extrication for trench was required given soil and ground instability surrounding the patient.”
Oakville Fire called on Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services’ (MFES) technical trench rescue team for assistance.
“MFES, with extreme precision, secured the ground surrounding the patient and a vacuum truck assisted with some earth removal,” said Boissonneault. “All emergency personnel on scene worked extremely well together and the patient was safely removed. Trench rescue emergencies pose significant hazards to patients and responders due to the unstable and volatile changing conditions.”
The rescue took over three hours to carry out.
Mississauga Fire Chief Deryn Rizzi tweeted “Trench rescue is a low-frequency but high hazard incident and @Mississauga FES/@oakvillefire conducted a phenomenal rescue in the Town of Oakville, demonstrating sophisticated skills and top-notch team work…Response was organized and methodical with redundancy built in for the patient’s safety.”
The patient was transported to hospital with non-life threatening injuries for monitoring.
A Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development inspector attended the scene and issued one requirement to the constructor, MTM Landscape Contractors Inc.
The Daily Commercial News will have more on the story.
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