Rescue crews from Gilchrist County, Alachua County and Gainesville worked together to free a man trapped in a collapsed trench on Thursday. 

The Gilchrist County Fire Rescue (GCFR), Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO) and Trenton Department of Public Safety received a call around 10:30 a.m. reporting that an 8-foot-deep trench had collapsed at a local dairy farm, trapping one man underground. 

The man’s coworkers dug out his head so he could breathe while they waited for the rescue crews, according to Alachua County Fire Rescue (ACFR) Assistant Fire Chief Mike Cowart. 

GCFR immediately requested mutual aid from Alachua County for its technical rescue team, and ACFR requested assistance from Gainesville Fire Rescue (GFR) for some equipment and the technical rescue team that comes with it, Cowart said. 

Because of the collapse, the walls of the trench were no longer stable, so the rescue crews had to “shore them up” using plywood panels to hold the dirt walls up while they dug the man out. 

More than two hours after he was trapped, emergency crews successfully freed the man from the collapsed trench. ShandsCair flew him to UF Health Shands Hospital in serious but stable condition, according to a GCFR press release. 

Cowart said trench collapses do not happen often, but every instance is different depending on the soil involved. He said the dirt in this rescue had some clay in it, which is difficult to dig out but does not cascade back into the hole like sand would. 

Rescue crews cannot rush, or they risk making the situation worse, Cowart said. Technical rescue teams go through specialized training to handle situations like this one. 

“Every situation is different, so it just takes a lot of experience and expertise in that line of work to be able to make that happen,” Cowart said in a phone interview.