A desperate rescue operation below a townhouse in the Palisades Highlands ended last Thursday afternoon when construction worker Gualfer Lopez-Reyes was found dead in a trench, buried under 11 feet of dirt. The L.A. County Coroner, who was on the scene in the 600 block of Palisades Drive in the Sea Ridge gated community, gave asphyxia as the cause of death. Lopez-Reyes, a 25-year-old worker with McGrath Contracting, was part of a team hired to install a French drain along the foundation of the two-story townhouse, which enters on the second floor. Nancy Hope, president of the Sea Ridge Homeowners Association, said the owner had experienced moisture along the lower-level walls. The contracting crew had dug out an L-shaped, 8-ft.-by-8-ft. by 11-ft.-deep trench along the building. Lopez-Reyes was the first worker to enter the trench at 10:55 a.m., only to have the dirt from the corner of the L collapse on him. Firemen from Stations 23 and 69 arrived first on the scene. Once they realized the depth at which Lopez-Reyes was trapped under the dirt, a search-and rescue team was called. Meanwhile, firefighters began digging through dirt described as adobe-like clay. They cut plywood and beams to use as support to prevent further cave-ins as they worked in the trench. According to Stephen Ruda, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman who was on scene, once the search-and-rescue team arrived, a ventilation air sock was placed after drilling through a cement block wall into the trench space in the hopes that Lopez-Reyes was in an air pocket and could be rescued. A Vactor 2100 sanitation truck, equipped with an apparatus that works as a large-scale vacuum, was positioned above the hole, and dirt was sucked out in an effort to locate Lopez-Reyes. About five feet down, the top of his white hardhat was reached. ’He was entombed in heavy compacted dirt and there were no signs of life,’ Ruda reported. The rescue attempt ended at 2:50 p.m. Krisann Chasarik of the California State Division of Occupational Safety and Health told the Palisadian-Post that the accident is under investigation and may take three to four months to complete. ‘The construction company had an annual excavation permit,’ Chasarik said. ‘We’re focusing on determining if it [the trench] was shored up properly. Anytime there is an excavation, there are safety regulations that have to be followed.’
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
