THORNTON, Colo — Thornton Fire Department crews don't know how a man found his way into the city's storm drainage system, but they knew they had to make quick work to get him out.
"We saw one of the grates, that were open, that we were trying to maintain contact with the victim that was on the other side of a tunnel we couldn’t get to," firefighter Richard Gaddis said. "So, we had to find other means of access to get to the victim, patient, in there."
Sunday afternoon, Thornton Fire was dispatched to the RTD Park and Ride off 88th Ave and I-25. First responders said the man called for help through the drain and someone on land was able to get in touch with rescue support.
Gaddis was one of two firefighters tasked with entering the system to make contact with the trapped man. The other was Forrest Oldham, who said navigating the drains was like a maze.
"We train for situations like this, we train extensively for situations like this, but I have never been involved in something like that before," Oldham said.
The pair ran into several challenges in the rescue. One was the capacity of their gear.
Gaddis explained they were suited up with confined spaces equipment to help them breathe.
"A long umbilical cord tube, about 300 feet worth of hose, we attach to and got an outside air supply," Gaddis said.
The difficult part came when they released how far in the man was stuck.
"He was 550 feet inside this drainage, which was all the length we had in our lines," Oldham said.
The team was able to find a possible opening to get in and reach the victim. They said they had to move fast as storms rolled into the area.
"Command was watching the weather the whole time we were down there, cause heavy rains would have flooded the area we were in, and we would have been leaving expeditiously," Oldham said.
The final challenge, obviously, was space.
"It was fairly tight, and we were in two inches of moving water," Oldham said.
"The initial tube was large enough for both of us to get through, but you're crawling on your hands and belly, moving your elbows, and you’re hoping things open somewhere and thankfully it did," Gaddis added.
"There wasn’t enough oxygen in that environment, not a survivable amount of oxygen. It was definitely depleted," Oldham said. "Which is possibly how he got stuck in there."
Thornton Fire said the rescue took several hours from when the initial call came in around 3:45 p.m. to the man being brought out to safety.
First responders said he was transported to the hospital following the rescue but couldn't confirm the state of his injuries.
Thornton Fire was supported by North Metro Fire and Westminster Fire.
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