Worker Is Badly Hurt at Hillside Slide Area : Accident: Emergency crew member falls 60 feet down a narrow hole and is pulled free by a crane. He was part of a team working to stabilize the yard of a home endangered by a collapsing slope.

A worker helping stabilize a hilltop home over a slide area was seriously injured early Wednesday when he fell 60 feet into a hole and had to be pulled free with the help of a crane.

James Howard, 23, of Rancho Cucamonga fell feet first about 6:40 a.m., and suffered a broken backbone and ankle. Late Wednesday, he was listed in fair condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Howard, a member of an around-the-clock work crew, was pulled out almost immediately with the help of a crane that was drilling the 20, 3-foot wide and 60-foot deep foundation holes designed to shore up the back yard of the Sanford Schpiro residence at 26392 Via Alano.

“It was a freak accident,” said City Engineer Bill Huber. “He lifted a piece of plywood that was covering the hole and stepped forward.”

A fellow worker said Howard was conscious during the rescue and tied himself to the rope that the crane lowered to haul him from the hole. A hospital spokesperson said he attempted to slow himself with his arms as he fell but only managed to cover himself with dirt and mud.

Howard was among 50 construction workers who spent Tuesday night and early Wednesday shoring up the ground in back of the $530,000 home on the edge of the slide area.

The city Monday had ordered two homes vacated and a third condemned as a result of a slide earlier that day. The collapse of the hillside has caused $1.5 million in damage to six properties, two along Via Alano at the top of the 75-foot slope, and four more at the bottom, along Calle Lucana.

The city issued emergency permits Tuesday for work on the Schpiro property, Huber said. The slide is at the rear of the property, where the swimming pool has torn loose from its foundation and appears ready to slip down the hill.

Though the hill appears to have stabilized, more moisture could endanger the area, Huber said.

“Our biggest concern right now is the weatherman,” Huber said. “Rain could obviously exacerbate the situation.”

Residents have said that water drained Sunday onto the hillside from a leaky swimming pool at the Schpiro residence may have precipitated the slide. The Schpiros have declined to comment.

Huber said he met with the property owners affected by the slide and advised them to collectively cover the eroding hillside with plastic sheets.

The workmen from the Laguna Beach-based Caron Construction Co. are stabilizing the slope below the Schpiro back yard with 60-foot concrete pilings. After the holes are drilled, they are being lined with reinforcing steel and then filled with concrete.

Most of the damage from the slide occurred at the base of the hill along Calle Lucana. Three families were ordered from their homes Monday when tons of dirt slid downward, pushing their homes from their foundations.

The worst damage was at the home belonging to Paul and Sue Filipowicz at 26375 Calle Lucana, which was twisted and bent nearly in two, and has been condemned. The Filipowicz family has been given the opportunity to have their home examined by insurance representatives.

Huber said he still had not determined when the other two families could return to their homes. The DiSchino residence at 26381 Calle Lucana, next door to the Filipowiczes’, was also “severely damaged,” particularly the back yard and the rear wall of the home, Huber said.