A plumber who became trapped in a 15-foot deep hole in Oakland Tuesday afternoon was rescued early Wednesday morning after spending nearly 13 wet and chilly hours underground, authorities said.
The man, identified by coworkers as Rogelio Esparza was working on a busted sewer line on the 2300 block of 21st Avenue in Oakland around 12:30 p.m. when the walls of the trench collapsed. Officials said the sides of the hole hadn'€™t been properly shored up.
At the bottom of the hole, Esparza'€™s feet became lodged in a mix of sand and clay, said Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Lisa Baker, and the loose nature of the material complicated rescue attempts.
"€œEvery time we’d try to pull out some sand, more sand would fallback into the hole," she said of the marathon rescue effort. "And his feet were stuck in clay at the bottom so we had to dig pretty deep."
To do so, Oakland firefighters, with assistance from the Alameda County Fire Department, brought in a large vacuum truck to try to empty the hole of some of the sand. As night fell and rescue workers began to worry about dropping temperatures and hypothermia, a heater was lowered into the trench to keep Esparza warm.
As the rescue effort stretched into the late evening and early morning, the rectangular hole was illuminated by large floodlights mounted on a firetruck as dozens of onlookers stood by, snapping pictures with mobile phones.
Then, with rain approaching, firefighters pulled Esparza, a plumber employed by Star Rooter, to safety just before 2 a.m. Though cold and shaken, Baker said Esparza was alert and talkative the whole time and didn'€™t appear to be hurt.
"He was taken to a hospital, but all his vital signs were normal and he didn'€™t have any outwardly visible injuries," she said. "€œWe were fortunate to get him out when we did because it started raining pretty soon after."
Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale
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