Trench Rescue an Act of Faith, Strength and Will

As 150 rescue workers rushed to free a trapped construction worker, they struggled against one overwhelming irony: Art Garcia risked killing himself with every breath he took.

Buried to his neck at the bottom of a 15-foot hole as a result of a construction accident Wednesday, Garcia was not seriously hurt in the initial collapse of earth that surrounded him. But every time his lungs expanded, then contracted, more dirt filled in around him, tightening around his stocky frame like a slowly coiling boa constrictor.

It was a race against time, a race that rescuers did not win until eight hours later, when they finally lifted Garcia to safety. The 45-year-old La Puente man was nearly buried alive three times during the emotionally wrenching effort.

Looking exhausted and shaky, Garcia appeared at a news conference Thursday to thank his rescuers, and God. He had felt the earth press against his throat, he said, and knew he had to stay still as death.

“I tried to relax. If you lose control, you’d kill yourself,” said Garcia, who suffered only a strained shoulder and no internal injuries. He is expected to be released from the hospital today.

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Questions and kudos abounded Thursday in the aftermath of the dramatic rescue, televised nationwide.

City officials praised two private companies that stepped forward to help during the operation. Fire officials called for additional funding for the specialized rescue team that saved the man. And state and local authorities began a formal investigation, although an initial inquiry suggests a freak accident.

Mladen Buntich Construction Co., which was contracted by the city’s Department of Water and Power on the pipeline construction project, has been cited at least nine times for safety violations since 1991, according to Cal/OSHA records.

Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the agency, said the violations are not excessive for a construction company the size of Buntich. He said, however, that some of the violations were categorized as “serious,” meaning they posed the possibility of death to employees.

“It’s a higher-risk type of industry,” Fryer said. “They don’t have an extreme amount of citations.”

Water and Power officials, however, said they do not believe Buntich was at fault for Thursday’s accident. They were investigating the possibility that light rains or vibrations from the Metrolink rail track about 100 feet away may have caused the collapse.

The $50-million project Garcia was working on is a pipeline to carry treated sewage from a DWP plant to a settling area near Hansen Dam. Once there, the treated water will slowly percolate into the soil to help replenish ground water supplies. There was only about 300 feet worth of work left to do before the accident.

About 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, an apparent sinkhole suddenly opened beneath Garcia and two co-workers as they stood next to a 25-foot-deep trench lined with vertical, rust-red metal plates.

The two co-workers grabbed onto the plates, stopping their descent into the sinkhole. Garcia was not so lucky, and fell 15 feet. He wound up wedged in a space about the width of a hard hat that opened between two of the metal plates. Only his hand was visible at first.

Firefighters were able to snake an air hose to Garcia. His precarious situation quickly became apparent. He was surrounded by fine silt almost the consistency of sugar. Any sudden movements would only send more dirt into the pit.

Firefighter Sergio Franco, a member of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue squad, was lowered into the hole via a pulley system from a fire ladder stretched over the hole.

Once in the hole, Franco removed the soil with an air knife, which uses compressed air to dig out dirt. After 30 minutes, he was relieved by another firefighter, then another. Firefighters eventually dug down 25 feet in their efforts to free Garcia.

The earth caved in on Garcia at least three times during the ordeal. At one point, he was saved only by a small air pocket created by his hard hat. During the third cave-in, Garcia was completely covered with soil. For 28 minutes, firefighters dangled above him, trying to resurrect the buried man.

For five minutes, they saw no movement. Then, finally, with the help of industrial-strength vacuums loaned by two private companies, they cleared enough dirt to see his fingers. They wriggled.

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City firefighter Chris Castellanos finally pulled Garcia back to life.

The strength of Garcia’s grip assured Castellanos that he was dealing with someone who would make it. “I could tell he was very strong-willed. The need to survive is what ended up saving him.”

Finally, after almost 30 minutes of struggle, Castellanos freed Garcia. What surprised Castellanos most was the way Garcia looked: hardly battered, still relatively strong, talking about going somewhere to get a stiff drink.

“Usually when we rescue someone, they are so afraid they freak out and end up even endangering the rescuer,” said Franco. “But this guy was like Superman, he was so calm and had a special will to live. . . . That’s part of the reason he’s here today.”

Speaking from Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, Garcia recounted what had gone through his mind.

Alternating between Spanish and English, Garcia said he thought about his wife, Celena, and their three children. “Who will sustain them? Who will make my house payments?”

Fire officials said Garcia was not a passive victim, but played an active role in his own rescue.

Meanwhile, Celena Garcia had watched the drama unfold on television at her home in La Puente. Buntich, Garcia’s employer, called moments earlier to tell her it was her husband of 14 years who was buried alive.

Through an interpreter, she said she did not go to the scene because she knew there was nothing she could do. “I always had faith in God that he would come out and be OK,” she said, wiping tears. “The children felt everything would be OK.”

Back at the accident scene, Garcia had continued to cling to life by breathing oxygen pumped through a garden hose and using his hard hat to keep dirt away from his face, fire officials said.

“It wasn’t until the last second that we knew for sure that he would get out,” said County Fire Capt. Larry Collins. “This guy escaped death over and over again last night. He cheated death at least a dozen times.”

Times staff writers Julie Ha, Michael Luo and Patrick McGreevy contributed to this story.