A man helping construct a well in Bargersville died Monday after its walls collapsed in on him.
The 56-year-old man, whose name and town of residence were not being released Monday evening, was building the well with his son and another person. At 12:10 p.m., the Bargersville Fire Department was called to the well, in the 4900 block of W. 225 N., after the man’s son unsuccessfully tried to rescue him from the bottom of the 15-foot construction trench. Both he and the other worker determined they wouldn’t be able to reach him without risking their lives and escaped, Bargersville Fire Chief Eric Funkhouser said.
It is the first construction-related death the fire department has responded to in Bargersville in about 20 years, he said.
After the two men escaped, both the Bargersville Fire Department and Indianapolis Fire Department’s trench rescue team attempted to shore the trench up in order to descend into the collapsed well, but determined it was too dangerous. The two departments were still trying to recover the body from the well at press time.
“The son did everything he could to dig him out but the walls kept collapsing and they had to make the decision to get out,” Funkhouser said. “A third person on the scene supposedly jumped in to help dig him out, but it kept collapsing and they had to exit.”
Members of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, the Johnson County Coroner’s Office, Indiana State Police, the Indiana Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were also at the scene, according to a news release from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
