Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
At least 31 people working in an 18-foot wastewater tunnel were rescued after the structure collapsed in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement late Wednesday that the cave-in happened at an underground excavation site around five to six miles south of the tunnel’s sole entry point.
The tunnel was being constructed for municipal wastewater management, the fire department said.
Trapped workers were able to “scramble with some effort” over a tall pile of soil and meet their colleagues on the other side of the collapse, then take a tunnel vehicle to the entry point, more than five miles away, said the fire department.
Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, said in an X post on Wednesday local time that all the workers trapped in the Wilmington tunnel were out and accounted for.
“I just spoke with many of the workers who were trapped. Thank you to all of our brave first responders who acted immediately. You are LA’s true heroes,” Bass wrote on X.
Bass said in an earlier X post that more than 100 Los Angeles Fire Department responders had been deployed to the site during the rescue exercise.
Michael Chee, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sanitation District, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that the workers were rescued from inside the tunnel shaft eight at a time using a system called a bird cage.
The tunnel project was part of a $630.5 million contract awarded in January 2019 to Dragados USA, a firm known for its tunneling work for large-scale construction projects.
The Los Angeles County Sanitation District and ACS Group, the parent company of Dragados USA, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.
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