Around 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, the ground in a Phoenix backyard near 24th Street and Thomas Road gave way. A man dropped into a hole about 6 feet deep, hurt his chest and could not climb out, and a pickup truck partly slid into the same hole beside him, FOX 10 Phoenix reported, citing the Phoenix Fire Department.
He made it out. A Phoenix Fire technical rescue crew first stabilized the truck so it would not sink any farther, then lowered a rescue technician into the sinkhole to bring him up. He was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition, and no firefighters were hurt.
A Pickup Partly Swallowed
The pickup turned a backyard emergency into a technical rescue. With the truck partly swallowed by the opening, crews had to secure it before anyone could safely go down after the injured man, fire officials said.
The department’s Firefighting Division runs several special operations teams, and a Technical Rescue Team is one of them, according to the city. The department lists 58 fire stations across Phoenix…