City Worker Hurt After Trench Fall

A city worker is being hailed for his quick actions in rescuing a fellow construction worker from a 10-foot deep trench in the Westfield section of town Wednesday.

The unidentified man was injured after losing his footing, tumbling into the trench and becoming partially buried as part of a wall caved in during sewer work. Workers were preparing to put in a trench box, or cross-brace, in a hole they had just excavated in front of 74 Bailey Road. The man has been taken to and the extent of his injuries are unknown.

However, "It's always serious when someone falls in a hole," said Middletown Fire Chief Gary Ouellette.

Middletown Police and Fire responded to a call just after 10 a.m. "They were attempting to lift the chain so they could put the trench box in place and that's when he happened to lose his footing and fall in the box," Deputy Chief Kronenberger said on scene. "[The excavator operatior] jumped down and tried to help him while the machine operator took the [excavator] bucket and tried to hold that side wall back from collapsing any further."

"His quick action was what stopped any other collapse," from happening, Kronenberger said.

Ouelette declined to give the machine operator's name, but said, "he's one of the best. He a darn good operator."

"It was a small secondary collapse of one of the side walls. He ended up with a lot of dirt on him we were able to get a rope on him and assist him to safety," Kronenberger said.

Work was temporarily halted while officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were called to inspect the site.

"We're waiting for OSHA to come in and investigate like we do with anything like this," said Kronenberger, "but we believe it was just an accident. The worker lost his footing."