'A Christmas miracle': Team describes rescuing partially buried man from Paulding County rock quarry
PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. - Firefighters who were part of a daring rescue operation in Paulding County at a concrete mixing facility on Tuesday are finally talking about their experience.
"It was unpredictable, it was unstable. It was very high risk," said Cobb County Fire Lt. Wesley Sheard.
Related: Trapped worker rescued from Paulding County rock quarry expected to recover
A man had fallen into a hopper and was buried in tons of sand.
"He was buried 20-feet down with 5- or 6-feet of material on top of him," said Lt. Sheard.
Any movement and more coarse sand could collapse on top of him. The technical rescue team from Cobb County Fire Station 7 was called in to help.
"We could hear him moaning, so we knew we had a shot," said Lt. Sheard.
Two firefighters went into the hopper. They dug steps into the material, to make it a little safer in case there was another collapse.
"Multiple collapses had covered him up almost entirely, so we went down there in the hole and started digging with hand shovels," said Cobb County firefighter Parker Lee.
"We have all the great equipment, all the training, but it came down to bare hands digging and pushing it into the vac pipe that was sucking up the material," said Lt. Sheard.
Finally, enough of the sand around the man was removed. After five long hours, they were ready to pull him out.
"We lifted him up with a rope system and finally got him out, and it was an unbelievable feeling," said Lt. Sheard.
Lt. Sheard says he's proud of the teamwork of all those involved: Paulding County Fire, Cobb County Fire, Department of Public Works, and the 30-year-old man who almost lost his life.
"The gentleman's will to survive … I don't know how he's alive today. It's a Christmas miracle. I don't have any other way to explain it," said Lt. Sheard.
Once free, the man was flown to Grady Memorial Hospital. Firefighters say at last update he was still in the hospital, but doing well, and will hopefully be home celebrating Christmas with his family.