Cave Rockslide Kills Man During Rescue Effort

A man who became trapped while exploring a cave died as rocks collapsed over him Thursday, more than 24 hours into a feverish attempt to free him.

Sharn Cleland, 24, was pinned at his waist by falling rock Wednesday. He remained awake through the night as rescue teams shored up the cave’s unstable walls and chipped away at one final rock that pinned him.

A rockslide about 2:15 p.m. Thursday collapsed onto him and killed him, said Mount Joy Fire Chief Bill Hall.

Hall called the cave a “house of cards.”

“Anything that shifted one way was going to cause something to shift another way,” he said, noting that rescue teams had to contend with rockslides as they attempted to buttress unstable earth.

Teams of cave rescue experts had been working in 30-minute shifts at the scene. Two workers could fit into the enclosure with Cleland at a time, using inflatable bags and plastic piping, lumber and steel bars to shore up the walls. The cave’s opening was about 30 inches high by 20 inches wide.

One rescue worker was inside the enclosure when the last collapse occurred, but he was protected by plastic sewer piping that had been installed in the hole, Hall said.

An excavator was brought in Thursday afternoon to assist in the recovery effort, Hall said.

The cave is in some woods on the campus of the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center. “No Trespassing” signs are posted nearby.

Cleland, an unemployed construction worker on a Fourth of July outing with a group of spelunkers, had crawled into the opening and was about 10 feet down when the wall collapsed.

“He went inside because he felt air flowing through the cave, which indicated there was more below the surface,” said John Rosenfeld, a spelunker who was outside when Cleland entered the cave. “We tried to dig him out but couldn’t.”

During the night Cleland complained of pain in his legs and back and was given an oxygen mask, intravenous fluids and a wool hat to fend off hypothermia. The temperature in the cave was 58 degrees.