Two men working in a trench found themselves trapped after it collapsed Friday afternoon in Poughkeepsie.
The pit caved in around 2 p.m. at a home on Dwight Street in the south end of the city, Mayor Rob Rolison told News 4. Rolison said the men were working on a sewer line trench — about 15 feet deep — when the sides of the trench gave way.
The men, who were said to be conscious and alert during the ordeal, were trapped up to their waist in debris. As of 5 p.m., both workers had been pulled from the trench -- at least one of them was taken to Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital for evaluation and treatment.
The Poughkeepsie Fire Department and a multi-jurisdictional trench rescue team were digging the men out using buckets to remove the loose soil by hand.
The wet ground, a result of the precipitation earlier in the week and some of the ground thawing out due to the unseasonably warm weather, may have contributed to the trench's collapse, but authorities haven't determined an official cause.
