On Thursday, August 27, 2009 the Cherry Hill Fire Department's Technical Rescue team responded to Southampton Township, in Burlington County, for a report of a worker trapped in a trench. When they arrived, members of the rescue team encountered a worker that was trapped up to his waste in a trench that was 3 feet wide, 6 feet long and 8 feet deep. Rescue team members immediately began to protect the worker from further collapse by using wooden panels and Paratech shores. The rescue teams had to deal with Type C soil (soil that is very granular and had water free flowing through it) almost like an hour glass. This is the most dangerous type of soil to work in or around, making the chance of a secondary collapse extremely high. The Cherry Hill Rescue team along with rescue teams from across Burlington County and the New Jersey State Urban Search and Rescue Team, NJ-TF1, worked for over five hours in extreme heat to free the trapped worker. Once freed, the worker was flown to Cooper Trauma Center in Camden where he is expected to make a full recovery.
