More details have been released following Thursday’s rescue of a man who fell 16 feet into a cardboard compactor at Green Quest Recycling near 4th and J Streets.
LFR Public Information officer MJ Lierman says the man, who is in his 40’s, fell into a product chute and was trapped. Employees immediately shut the power off. “First arriving crews found three people inside the machine. Two co-workers had crawled inside and were attempting to help the third who was pinned in the machine,” Lierman says.
The two workers were pulled out of the compactor and rescue crews turned their attention to the trapped employee. “Crews used several different types of extrication equipment to gain access to the patient,” Lierman says. Rescue personnel and employees were eventually able to remove the extreme amounts of cardboard by hand.
Lierman says the man trapped was awake the whole time and LFR personnel provided medical care to him inside the machine. She says each bale of cardboard they cut through weighs about 1,500 pounds. She says it took about 40 minutes to complete the rescue mission.
Lierman says they train for situations just like this one. “This is one our tech rescue crews train for very regularly on machinery entrapment. Everything went very well and it was a smooth operation.”
The worker was taken to Bryan West Trauma Center for treatment. The extent of injuries are unknown.