06/30/2015 - PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS (PLYMOUTH COUNTY) - Around 1100 hours on the morning of Tuesday, June 30, 2015 the Plymouth Fire Department responded to 143 Hedges Pond Road, P.A. Landers, for a report of a person trapped under sand, inside a front-end loader. When crews arrived they found a large front-end loader almost completely buried in sand with an operator completely trapped in the vehicle. The loader was covered with an estimated 12-feet of sand. While firefighters worked to access the victim, the Plymouth County Technical Rescue Team was requested for assistance. Firefighters were able to make contact with the victim, and they determined that he was deceased. At this point, the operation was deemed a recovery operation. Upon arrival of the Plymouth County Technical Rescue Team, several options for a recovery of the victim, which would be safe for the rescuers and others on-scene were discussed, and at least two different plans were put into motion. The large pile of loose sand, approximately 200-feet high, hindered rescue efforts, as additional avalanches were a possibility. Rescue crews had difficulty removing sand from around the victim due to more sand continuously coming into the cab of the front-end loader. Shoring was set up inside the cab to secure more sand from re-entering the front-end loader. Crews still found difficulty removing the sand from around the victim so that he could be extricated. Parts of the exterior of the vehicle, and the interior of the cab were removed so crews could better access the victim. Technical rescue companies worked in teams of two, tethered to ropes, to try and free the victim. The technicians worked in 20-minute intervals, where they were then relieved by another crew of two. Sawzall's and hydraulic cutting tools were used inside and outside the cab. Due to the amount of sand that was trapping the victim inside the cab, a vacuum truck from the Town of Plymouth was requested to respond. Within approximately 30-minutes of the request, a vacuum truck was on-scene. The Plymouth County Technical Rescue Team set up a four-to-one haul system at the top of a ladder at the rear of the front-end loader. A harness was placed around the victim, and it was attached to the haul system. While the vacuum truck worked at removing the sand that was trapping the victim, the haul team carefully hoisted the victim out of the vehicle. After several minutes of work with vacuum truck, the haul team was able to free the victim, removing him from the cab of the truck. A stokes basket was brought in, and the victim was placed into it. A crew of six carried the victim away from the scene. The entire rescue took approximately four hours. Plymouth Fire Chief Edward Bailey said, "It was a combination of suffocation and trauma from the weight of all that sand that came cascading down the hill. It was almost like an avalanche with snow, only it was all sand.”. The cause of the incident is under the investigation of the Plymouth Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police, and OSHA. No other injuries were reported at the scene. The deceased was identified as Charles Pace, 65, of Whitman.
