Echo Park Trench Cave-In Kills Construction Worker

A man working in a trench at an Echo Park home was killed Thursday afternoon when it caved in, burying him up to his chin, authorities said.

Alfredo Luna, 28, a construction worker, was pronounced dead at the scene by Los Angeles firefighters.

Luna was unconscious when firefighters arrived, but the damp soil was so heavy that firefighters were unable to immediately free him, said Brian Humphry, a Fire Department spokesman. Luna died a few minutes later.

“He was barely breathing when we arrived, so we gave him oxygen,” Humphry said. “He was completely trapped and couldn’t move. We tried to get him out but the soil was very heavy and very compact. The firefighters on the scene were visibly disheartened.”

More than 40 firefighters and paramedics and an urban search-and-rescue team were unable to save Luna.

The construction firm Luna worked for had dug the three-foot-wide trench while building a retaining wall near a hillside, Humphry said. Luna had been working in the trench Thursday afternoon when one side suddenly collapsed on him. A co-worker called 911.

Firefighters suspect that a sewer line had recently burst, Humphry said, “which caused the soil to be so damp and heavy.” The weight of the soil was estimated to be about 100 pounds per cubic foot.

“The soil put tremendous squeezing pressure on the body,” Humphry said. “He couldn’t survive very long with that kind of pressure.”

It took firefighters more than three hours to recover the body. They had to break a hole in a garage’s cinder-block wall to gain access to the trench.