Bethlehem and Albany County responders extricate man from under collapsed concrete porch

• Team from Colonie and Albany County called in to help Bethlehem departments

• First time Trench Rescue team responds as a County Unit

DELMAR — A Roweland Avenue man was swallowed by his front porch and pinned under 1,500 pounds of concrete on Tuesday, June 25, prompting local fire chiefs to call in a specialized team to lead the rescue operation.

At 11:27 p.m. Delmar and Slingerlands fire departments responded to the scene to find a man trapped in a 6-foot hole that was once his porch.

“We arrived at 11:32 and quickly determined we needed specialized help,” Delmar Fire Chief Dan Ryan said. “This is the first time I can remember that we had something like this.”

According to Ryan and Slingerlands Chief Craig Sleurs, when they reached the scene they found a resident of the home trapped under the slab of concrete that was the floor of the porch. He was sitting on a chair in the middle of the space and the floor cracked and gave way.

“The concrete split and fell with him in the middle. Then the slab scissored back on top of him with what was the outside edge of the porch now in the middle and over his head,” Ryan said.

“His foot and leg were pinned near the edge so he couldn’t move,” Sleurs said. “He was so lucky that the front piece was tented with the back piece. But the weight of it was on his leg.”

At 11:42 p.m. Ryan called in the Albany County Trench and Confined Space team to lead the rescue efforts. The specialized team, made up of members of the Village of Colonie Fire Department and the Albany County Search and Rescue Team trains and is equipped specifically to handle this type of rescue.

The Slingerlands Fire Department specializes and trains specifically for extractions and rescues and is called out when there is an incident in the Town, but most of the time the calls involve vehicle crashes. “It is what we do well and what we train for,” Sleurs said. “When I looked into that hole and talked to [Chief Dan Ryan], I knew that the County team would be better for this.”

Delmar Bethlehem EMS and County Paramedics stabilized the 40-year-old man stuck under the slab and stayed with him in the hole during the process.

“EMS provided stabilizing care in the hole and really kept the patient calm while the team lifted it off him,” Ryan said.

The man was freed and transported to Albany Medical Center Hospital at approximately 1:10 a.m. to be treated for leg and neck injuries, Sleurs said.

“I really want to thank all of the first responders, they did a great job,” the man who was trapped said at his house on Wednesday.

The front porch was taped off and we spoke to him through the garage door. The man confirmed that inspectors from the Town of Bethlehem Building department were there after the collapse.

“People who have that kind of porch in that part of Delmar should have it checked out so this does not happen again,” Chief Ryan said.

The houses on the street are of various ages, but many, like this one, were built in the mid to late 1950’s.

“I have been in the construction field for 30 years and this is the first time I experienced a collapse like this,” Town of Bethlehem Asst. Building Inspector Craig Yaiser said. “This slab was only about 1 ½ inches thick and did not have any supports. That kind of porch is still used today, but usually they have corrugated steel as a base.”

Yaiser said that usually the masons build a form with steel as a base which gives strength and rigidity. The foundation hole is also usually back filled with material so if a split occurs, it only drops a few inches to a foot depending on settling of the material.

“I honestly have never seen a pour like this,” Yaiser said. “This was built so long ago, we are not sure this is the original surface of the porch.”

Yaiser said that there were remnants of wood under the concrete and the previous owners may had used the space underneath for other purposes, like a root cellar.

“We would like to spread the word to people around to give a look to see how their porches are structured,” he said. The town has engineers they can refer homeowners to if they have concerns.

“The homeowner was lucky he was still alive and he stood up after this, which is a testimonial to our first responders,”  Yaiser said.

Special team needed

The rescue team set up rigging to move the slab of concrete and also used airbags under it. The bags are controlled from up above, so coordination and communications are key, Colonie Fire Department Chief Jeff Kayser said.

“This type of work is very labor intensive and the conditions are very different from a surface rescue,” he said.

This was the first incident together as a combined Albany County team. Over the past two years, members of the Albany County Search and Rescue team started training for Trench rescue, joining with the Colonie (located in the Village of Colonie) and Watervliet Arsenal Fire Departments to make up the Albany County team.

According to Kayser, Colonie started specialized training in 1996 and began responding to incidents in 1998. The team has maintained at least 20 members during that time.

Last incident was in Clifton Park in August 2021. It was a very hot day and manpower was an issue, he said. Numbers had been on the decline because of the 90 hours of training required for certification to be on the team and there are not that many calls related to this type of rescue.

“We approached Albany County Fire Coordinator Gerry Paris because we needed more guys,” Kayser said. “We formed the team, they were trained up and came into service.”

There are two levels of training required to do the work. Under eight feet deep a member has to be trained at the operation level and deeper than that members are required to be at the technician level, he said.

During this time the Colonie Fire Department designed a truck for trench rescue and turned it over to the county.

This type of team actually pre-dated the formation of a State rescue team for trench and today, the county and state teams work together.

“This equipment is very good for responding to building collapse situations as well,” Kayser said.

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