7/25/2007 Two workers missing in St. Paul’s sewers
St. Paul fire and rescue officials descended desperately 150 feet below the city’s surface Thursday evening searching for two missing sewer workers lost in the run-off from a torrential rainstorm.
Of seven workers who went into the storm sewer system Thursday only five came out when a call for an emergency evacuation was made, according to a spokesman with Lametti and Sons Inc., a Hugo, Minn.-based contractor.
Contractors were working below ground in the Frogtown area near a main shaft at Avon Street and Edmund Avenue when the emergency exit call was issued just after 3 p.m.
Bob Kraft, a spokesman for the contracting firm, said two of the workers immediately ascended from a main shaft on a crane-operated bucket leaving five men still in the tunnel.
When the foreman still below ground saw six inches of water at his feet decided to go to a second exit point about 1,400 feet upstream to the northwest, Kraft said, where the five could exit by a staircase.
After getting up the stairs, only three appeared on the surface, he said. The three workers immediately went back into the tunnel where the water was reaching above their knees. They searched for their missing companions all the way down to where the sewer exits into the Mississippi River. They were not able to find them.
By the end of their search the water had receded to less than an inch.
“They felt the best thing was to go right back down … The policy is just exactly that,” Kraft said.
He added that the emergency evacuation is typically triggered by weather service reports. But as far as how those reports are monitored and how decisions are made “I’m not sure about that.”
Kraft would not identify the missing workers, saying only that they are men.
Fire Department officials received a call at 7:17 p.m. and put teams into the sewer system at 8:30 p.m.
Teams went into the system at Victoria Street and Lafond Avenue as well as at Chatsworth Street and Concordia Avenue.
The sewer lines the teams walked down – eight-feet diameter tunnels – merged into a main storm sewer line that traveled all the way to the Mississippi River.
Six fire companies and other rescue officials traveled to access points to communicate with the search teams.
The search ended on the Mississippi River front, where several family members waited in the shadow of the Wabasha Street Bridge.
As the hours wore on, the family members walked shakily across Shepard Avenue to meet with fire officials for word of their loved ones.
Family members could only shake their heads numbly when asked if there was anything they wanted to say.
Water patrol boats searched the river for sign of the missing workers.
Interim Fire Chief Bob Morrison said at 11 p.m. that rescue teams had scoured the line “a couple of times.” Morrison added that fire officials intended to break off the search in the next half hour.
However, just before midnight rescue workers again descended into the hole at the base of the river after more family members showed up at the scene. They ended the search shortly after midnight.
The search would resume, if necessary, at sunrise today with boats in the river, officials said.
“The search is still going on,” said Bob Hume, spokesman for St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. “Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with the families. That’s really all we can say now.”
Lametti and Sons Inc. have been working on the city’s sewer system since February. Kraft said the firm has worked with the city of St. Paul for decades.
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