A man died Saturday when a wall of the swimming pool he was digging in Orange collapsed around him.
The collapse was first reported at 10:52 a.m. in the 6200 block of East Cliffway Drive, said Orange Fire Capt. Ryan O’Connor.
The man, described as “middle aged,” was digging with four other men when part of a wall collapsed around him and he was buried up to his shoulders, O’Connor said.
The fire captain on the scene called for Urban Search and Rescue units from Orange, the Orange County Fire Authority, Anaheim and Huntington Beach while the first-arriving firefighters were lowered into the hole with ropes and began trying to clear the dirt away from the man, he said.
There was a secondary wall collapse and the man became completely buried, but firefighters continued to work to save him for more than two hours, O’Connor said.
At about 1:30 p.m., the effort changed to a search for the man’s body, which was not completed before dark, he said.
Workers were assembling a crane and looking for a stable place to place it so that searchers can be lowered into the hole inside a protective steel cage to dig for the man’s body without the threat of another collapse, O’Connor said.
CalOSHA was investigating the collapse, he said.