A construction worker in San Francisco died Thursday when a trench collapsed on him, burying him under several feet of dirt, fire officials said.
Emergency crews spent roughly two hours trying to rescue the worker in the area of Oak and Divisadero streets, but when they finally reached him, it was too late.
"It's sad to say that after two hours underneath a lot of debris with no oxygen, this became a fatal incident," San Francisco Fire Department Capt. Jonathan Baxter said.
The worker was in the trench – described as being 8 to 10 feet deep and narrow – when it collapsed, officials said.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“We initially had to get in there just with our people, with hands and buckets, lifting, basically pulling sand and dirt out of there," San Francisco Fire Department Chief Jeanine Nicholson said.
An urban search and rescue dog was brought in to help locate the worker, and a massive vacuum truck was used to help clear out pounds and pounds of dirt and debris that buried him.
Local
After finding him, it took crews another two hours to remove his body from the trench.
According to San Francisco Public Works, the worker was part of a contracted crew that's working on a city sewer upgrade project.
"Safety is our number one priority. We want to find out what happened, why it happened," said Rachel Gordon with San Francisco Public Works. "We're going to be working with the contractor. We're going to be working with the fire department, Cal OSHA. We have street inspectors, construction inspectors all on scene to try and find out what happened.”
Mayor London Breed toured the site and said the city will do what it can for the worker's family.
“Some of his family is here. We need to make sure they are properly notified and provided with the respect and the support that they need," she said.
