Trench Rescue in Portland

What started Monday morning a sewer line repair project at a Cedar Hills home turned into a life-and-death situation for Apollo Excavating employees when a narrow, 14-foot-deep trench surrounding the pipe collapsed and buried a worker up to his head under layers of mud and dirt for more than two hours.

Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue crews pulled the trapped worker from the narrow trench in the front yard of 12715 S.W. Bowmont St. around 2:30 p.m.

The man was transported to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland. His name and medical condition were not released. Two of the man’s co-workers at Apollo Excavation, who were also in the trench but escaped during the collapse, were not hospitalized.

Gebbie Leonard, who hired the business to repair a broken sewer line from his house to the main pipe under Bowmont Street, was home at about 11 a.m. March 3 when one…