Fire officers from the Four Roads, Diego Martin station have come in for high praise after rescuing a plumbing contractor who was buried at a jobsite on Saturday.
Kendall Braithwaite suffered injuries to the left leg, back and head when there was a landslide on a hill nearby. The mud filled up the trench he was digging on the Westwind development, off Manning Street, Diego Martin.
One of the people who initially tried to rescue Braithwaite, Nigel Gardener, said he was visiting family on Saturday when he heard commotion outside.
“My father came outside and saw a man frantically waving and two cars stopped. When I arrived on the site, I looked and saw that a fellah was buried to just above the chest in mud. I went across, we were all digging and the more we digged, more dirt piled down on him.”
Gardener said his parents then called the Four Roads Fire Station and they responded within minutes. Clearly impressed about the professionalism of the fire officers, he said: “Within six minutes they came, they were so professional. They had to cut plywood and brace it to prevent more dirt and debris from coming down from the top of the hill. It did cave in on him, he had his oxygen mask. We were finally able to brace it good and then pulled him out.”
Gardener said when the owner was contacted by a neighbour the owner said no one was supposed to be on the site. Describing the incident as traumatic he said he and the neighbours did their best.
“We tried to pull him out by putting rope around him but when your body is stuck so deeply in mud its very hard to come out. We tied the other end of the rope to some steel so he won’t go further down.”
He said the officers “did what they had to do” to calm Braithwaite. What is clear he said, is that in time of tragedy strangers came together to save a life.