mobanmarketLOS ANGELES, CA — A plumber is recovering today after he fell asleep in the crawlspace of a Northridge home Saturday, triggering an emergency rescue effort in which firefighters chainsawed through the home’s floor to get to the sleeping worker.
It wasn’t clear if the man was tired and fell asleep on the job or if crawlspace conditions such as an oxygen shortage may have contributed to him passing out.
It started shortly after 6 p.m. when the worried homeowner called the Los Angeles Fire Department to say that the plumber went into the call space hours earlier and never came back out nor did he answer to calls.
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According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the 50-year-old man entered the crawl space under a home built in 1958. The home has a raised foundation, and the crawl space was about three-feet high, said the LAFD’s Brian Humphrey.
The homeowner shouted down to the plumber but heard nothing, said Humphrey.
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“We tried to communicate with him under the house,” said LAFD Spokesman Nicholas Prange. “We weren’t sure where he was.”
Crews used a chainsaw to cut holes through the floor to find him and used blowers to ventilate the area, said Prange.
“LAFD crews, including those specially trained and equipped in Urban Search and Rescue arrived quickly to ventilate and monitor the enclosed environment, and soon visibly noted a small portion of the still unresponsive worker’s body at a distance,” Humphrey said. “Firefighters cutting the second of two holes in the home’s floor with chainsaws to gain best access, and to assist in his efficient removal, awakened the sleeping worker, who soon thereafter crawled from the crawlspace uninjured.”
The man was treated at the scene and did not appear to have any injuries, according to the fire department.
He did not need to be taken to a hospital by ambulance, Prange added.
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