Firefighters Respond to Construction Site Accident

Update, April 9: Firefighters freed a man who was trapped for an hour and a half under a collapsed trench at a construction site in Water Mill on Tuesday afternoon.

The man, whose name Southampton Town police had not released as of press time yesterday, was working for an electrical subcontractor at 45 Summerfield Lane. He was trying to lay electric line to a newly built pool house when the narrow, 12-foot-deep trench caved in on him, according to Jeff White, a first assistant chief with the Bridgehampton Fire Department, who was in charge of the rescue operation. He said the trench was two feet wide at the bottom and about four feet wide at the top.

Chief White said the electrical line was being run underneath the footing of the pool house when the dirt started pouring in on the worker sometime before 1 p.m. He was waist-deep when fellow workers first tried to free him. Workers at a neighboring house helped out, using a small backhoe, but the situation only worsened. They called police at 1:17 p.m.

“When I got there, he was buried about up to his shoulders,” Chief Whitesaid of the man, who was about 6-foot-2. The man had been standing upright in the trench when he was trapped, and his hands and armed were covered by the wet dirt. “He was perfectly conscious and perfectly coherent.”

Despite the efforts of the Bridgehampton Fire Department’s heavy rescue squad, with the help of firefighters from Sag Harbor Fire Department, who brought their aerial ladder truck to gain a better vantage point, the situation wasn’t getting any better, Chief White said. “It was up kind of around his chin at one point.”

The Hampton Bays Fire Department, which once had a trench rescue team, was called to assist, Chief White said. While they sent manpower and tools, a full cadre was not available. The Air National Guard’s high and low-angle rescue team, based at the Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, was also deployed, but firefighters were able to free the man just as they arrived.

“They were digging it out by the bucketful at that point,” Chief White said.

The man was taken to a medevac helicopter waiting at the ball field next to the Bridgehampton Firehouse to transport him to Stony Brook University Hospital. His condition was not known as of yesterday, but the fire chief did not believe he was badly injured. Southampton Town police detectives, who were unavailable to comment, are investigating the incident in conjunction with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

About a half hour into the rescue operation, the Bridgehampton Fire Department was dispatched to the Long Island Power Authority building on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton for a patient in cardiac arrest. Because so many resources were being used in Water Mill, Chief White immediately asked that a neighboring district send an ambulance. Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance picked up the call.

The Southampton ambulance had also sent advanced life support providers to assist with the trench rescue.

Bridgehampton also received assistance from East Hampton Fire Department Chief Richard Osterberg Jr., who was in the area and offered to stand by at the firehouse while the helicopter was waiting. An ambulance from the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association also stood by at the firehouse.

Update, 5 p.m.: The man who was trapped from the waist down wass freed from under dirt that had collapsed on him as he was working on Tuesday afternoon. He was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital around 3:30 p.m. 

Southampton Town police remained at the construction site to investigate. 

Update, 2:30 p.m.: The National Guard's trench operation rescue team has been called to the scene to assist. 

Update, 2:15 p.m.: The Hampton Bays Fire Department is also responding to assist with the trench rescue. Meanwhile, Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance had to assist Bridgehampton in responding to a call for a patient in cardiac arrest at the Long Island Power Authority building on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton just after 2 p.m.

As of 2:15 p.m., the man was still stuck in the trench at the Water Mill construction site, and a Suffolk County medevac helicopter was landing at the Bridgehampton ball field, next to the firehouse, to transport him once he is freed.

Originally: A man was reportedly trapped in a trench at a construction site in Water Mill on Tuesday afternoon. 

The Bridgehampton Fire Department was called to 45 Summerfield Lane at about 1:20 p.m., after a man's legs were said to be trapped in a 10-foot hole. The department's rescue squad and ambulance responded, and fire chiefs requested assistance from the Sag Harbor Fire Department. 

A helicopter was put on standby in case the patient needed to be transported to Stony Brook University Hospital.