High Ridge firefighters on Sept. 11 rescued a young man trapped for about an hour at the bottom of a 25-foot-deep stormwater sewer pipe.
The High Ridge man is now recovering from injuries sustained after falling through an opening where a stormwater manhole should have been on Emerson Road in High Ridge.
High Ridge Fire Chief John Barton said firefighters were dispatched to a confined space rescue at 10:53 p.m. Dispatch said they received a 911 call from somebody claiming they could hear a voice yelling for help from the sewer system, although they couldn’t see anybody and weren’t even sure how many people were trapped in the sewer.
“When we arrived on the scene, the first truck confirmed that there was somebody they could hear yelling for help through the sewer system, and they were able to communicate with that person and ask some questions, but the person really didn’t know where they were,” Barton said.
The firefighters had trouble locating the victim due to numerous echoes coming from the stormwater system. The firefighters fanned out in different directions, following the sewer line, to try to locate the victim, Barton said.
“While I was walking down the line, I saw a hole in the ground with my flashlight, and as I walked up to it and I looked down, I could see the illuminated keypad of a cell phone,” Barton said. “I shined my flashlight down into the hole, and I could see the victim laying on his back at the bottom of about a 25-foot drop into a stormwater sewer system access point that did not have a manhole cover on it.”
Crews went to work setting up a rope system above the hole, lowering two rescuers down into the drainage system and levering the victim back up vertically in a stokes basket, which Barton said is a backboard with sidewalls and straps. The victim was freed from the pipe about 11:40 p.m. and immediately taken by ambulance to a hospital.
Barton said the victim was conscious throughout the rescue and was able to explain that he was walking home from work when he fell down the hole. It was dark, grass was tall in that area, and he never saw the hole coming, Barton said.
“There’s a lot of speculation about what actually happened, but there was no negligence on this individual’s part,” he said. “There were no drugs or alcohol involved. There was no sidewalk for them to use, and the hole was pretty close to the road – I would say it was probably approximately 6 feet off the side of the road, so, you know, he was walking where somebody would be walking if they didn’t want to walk on Emerson Road.”
High Ridge Fire has covered the manhole opening with plywood so that others will not fall down the hole. Barton said the fire district is working to determine what agency is responsible for replacing the missing cover.
Councilman Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge) asked County Executive Dennis Gannon at the County Council’s regular meeting Monday who should be held responsible for the missing cover, whether it’s the county’s stormwater management division, public works department or a local sewer or water district.
“I’m sure that could be figured out pretty easily,” Gannon said. “I can’t answer it now, (but) I will make sure that once it’s found out and discovered, we’ll get that (information) to them.”
Barton said North Jefferson County Ambulance District and the Fenton Fire Protection District helped, with one Fenton firefighter joining a High Ridge firefighter down in the stormwater system to rescue the victim. He said the victim was fortunate that a bystander, who is yet to be identified, decided to call 911 when they did.
“This was 11 p.m. It’s not unreasonable that he could have been down there all night long until the next day, and at that point, who knows what his condition might have been?” Barton said. “(The 911 caller) took action and got help on scene and quite possibly saved his life.”