ENGLAND, Ark. — Update: The Lonoke County Sheriff has confirmed that the person who died in the accident is 36-year-old Evangelio "Gordy" Montes of Russellville.
On Monday, first responders from across Central Arkansas rescued a man who was stuck for nearly 5 hours in a collapsed 14-foot trench at Sandage Farms in England.
Four others, including first responders, were injured, and one worker died.
According to the Lonoke County Sheriff's Office and first responders on the scene, at around 1:00 p.m. a trench being worked on for a federal irrigation project collapsed, and one worker got stuck. Two other workers then tried to help, but the trench collapsed for a second time, trapping three workers.
The England Fire Department and Lonoke County Sheriff's Office were the first to arrive.
Three first responders were injured during those initial rescue efforts.
The sheriff's office says the trench was part of a federal irrigation project that spans from the Arkansas River to the Mississippi River.
First responders explained that the trench was about 18 feet deep in total and 14 feet deep where the worker was trapped.
This area is about a half hour away from Little Rock, so it took time before first responders in surrounding areas could help.
When departments from across Central Arkansas, arrived, one man was still stuck from the waist down.
After the nearly five-hour-long rescue, the worker was med-flighted to the hospital.
Pulaski County Emergency Area Director Andy Traffanstedt was a part of that mutual aid, helping the rescue operation in the trench.
"It just took effort for everybody working together, the England Fire Department, the Lonoke Department of Emergency Management, their Sheriff's Department, Medflight, everyone pulled together to get this gentleman out, even though it was about a four-and-a-half-hour operation," Traffanstedt said.
An owner of Sandage Farms explained that the workers were not employed by the farm, but by a contractor.
How the trench collapsed and what caused it has not yet been shared.
We will update you with more information as soon as it becomes available.
