Man rescued after being trapped under landslide of dirt for 15+ hours in Lewis County

LEWIS COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A 53-year-old man continues to recover at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) after the massive piece of construction equipment he was operating was suddenly covered by a landslide of dirt in Lewis County.

According to Deputy Chief Richey Schatz with the Maury County Fire Department, the cave-in happened around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 19.

Schatz said the man was loading chert rock into a dump truck at a location in the 300 block of Keg Springs Road in the Hampshire community. That’s when a wall of dirt came crashing down onto the backhoe the man was operating, smashing the machine and completely covering the operator.

According to Schatz, when the man didn’t notify anyone where he was, his family started looking for him. When they found his dump truck running but no sign of him or his backhoe, they began investigating more closely, leading to the discovery of a small piece of the backhoe exposed in the dirt.

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At this point, it was after 11 p.m., some 12 hours after the cave-in.

Officials said multiple agencies were summoned to the site, including the Hohenwald, Lewis County, Maury County, and Spring Hill fire departments. By the end of the operation, dozens of rescue crews were on site, including volunteers and members of the Maury County Highway Department and Hohenwald Utilities, which brought in heavy equipment.

According to Schatz, when the wall of the chert pit came crashing down, the man was trapped, under the roof of the backhoe.

“It was about that much area is what he had, with just his head and one arm that was out of the dirt,” Schatz said, using his hands to demonstrate how small the air pocket was for the man to breathe.

Pictures from the Maury County Fire Department show first responders standing on dirt that turned out to be on top of the buried machine.

Schatz said Lewis County responders were able to get a pipe through the dirt and down to the man to funnel fresh oxygen to him.

According to fire officials, crews started digging with their hands and shovels and formed a “bucket brigade” to remove the dirt from the immediate area. After more than three hours, a skid steer and another backhoe joined the effort to move larger amounts of dirt, allowing the buried backhoe to be revealed.

At that point, personnel decided to cut the roof off the buried backhoe to reach the trapped man.

“Their expertise and high level of skill that they used operating in very close proximity to that backhoe was invaluable to the successful outcome,” Schatz said.

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Once the roof was removed, rescuers loaded the man into a stokes basket. Because of the terrain, first responders formed a human chain and passed the man down the hill to an ambulance, which took him to a VUMC LifeFlight helicopter.

According to Schatz, the man was surprisingly awake and alert, even helping the crews push the dirt away from himself.

“He talked to us throughout the incident,” the deputy fire chief told News 2. “He was trying to move dirt away from himself throughout the incident and was very motivated to get out.”

Officials at VUMC told News 2, the man is in stable condition as of Wednesday, March 20.

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