LEWIS COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) – A 53-year-old man continues to recover at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) after the massive construction equipment he was operating was suddenly covered by a landslide in Lewis County.
According to Maury County Fire Department Deputy Chief Richey Schatz, the collapse happened around 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 19.
Schatz said the man was loading flint rock into a dump truck at a location in the 300 block of Keg Springs Road in the Hampshire community. That’s when a wall of dirt crashed into the backhoe the man was operating, destroying the machine and completely covering the operator.
According to Schatz, when the man didn’t tell anyone where he was, his family started looking for him. When they found his dump truck running, but no sign of him or his backhoe, they began to investigate more closely, and found a small piece of the backhoe exposed in the dirt.
By this time, it was after 11 pm, about 12 hours after the sinking.
Officials said multiple agencies were called to the scene, including the Hohenwald, Lewis County, Maury County and Spring Hill fire departments. By the end of the operation, dozens of rescue crews were on the scene, including volunteers and members of the Maury County Road Department and Hohenwald Utilities, who brought in heavy equipment.
According to Schatz, when the flint pit wall collapsed, the man was trapped under the roof of the backhoe.
“It was this area that he had, just his head and one arm that was out of the dirt,” Schatz said, using his hands to demonstrate how small the air pocket was for the man to breathe .
Maury County Fire Department footage shows first responders standing on dirt that turned out to be on top of the buried machine.
Schatz said Lewis County officials were able to run a pipe through the dirt and down to the man to pipe him fresh oxygen.
According to firefighters, crews began digging with hands and shovels and formed a “bucket brigade” to remove dirt from the immediate area. After more than three hours, a skid steer and another backhoe joined the effort to move larger amounts of dirt, allowing the buried backhoe to be revealed.
At that point, the staff decided to cut through the roof of the buried backhoe to get to the trapped man.
“Their experience and the high level of skill they used to operate in close proximity to this backhoe was invaluable to the success,” Schatz said.
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After the roof was removed, the rescuers loaded the man into a stokes basket. Because of the terrain, first responders formed a human chain and carried the man down the hill to an ambulance, which took him to a VUMC LifeFlight helicopter.
According to Schatz, the man was surprisingly awake and alert, even helping crews brush the dirt away from himself.
“He spoke to us during the incident,” the deputy fire chief told News 2. “He was trying to stay away from the dirt throughout the incident and was very motivated to get out.”
VUMC officials told News 2 the man was in stable condition as of Wednesday, March 20.
