By JESSE GRAHAM
A MAN is in hospital after being rescued from a three-metre hole in Yering this morning, in a two-hour operation bringing together brigades from around the valley.
About 10.50am on Thursday 23 July, a man believed to be in his fifties was working on an in-ground swimming pool area, standing on scaffolding inside a three-metre hole.
Coldstream CFA Captain Sean Bethell said the scaffolding collapsed under the man when he was about one metre off the ground in the hole.
“It caught his leg, flipped him over and bumped him on the back of his head,” Capt Bethell said.
Emergency services were called out to the scene for a “trench rescue”, which Capt Bethell said could have been an incident where a person was trapped under dirt.
Coldstream CFA, Lilydale CFA, Lilydale SES, Dandenong High Angle Rescue, Monbulk High Angle Rescue, Frankston Breathing Apparatus Support, Hallam Hazmat, WorkSafe, Victoria Police and Ambulance Victoria all responded to the incident.
The man was trapped underground for two hours, before finally being extracted and taken to Maroondah Hospital in a stable condition and a knee injury.
Capt Bethell said all services at the scene “worked very well as a team”.
“It was really good to see the emergency services coming together to do a good job,” he said.
