AN ORDEAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19784, 7 March 1927, Page 9

AN ORDEAL

TRAPPED IN QUICKSANDS MAN’S EIGHT HOURS FIGHT Rescuers worked frantically with desperate energy for eight hours to save a man, David Inglis, who was slowly being sucked down by quicksand after he had been trapped by the partial collapse of a trench in which he was working. His mate, Ernest Johnson, in the meanwhile stood motionless beside him, wholly alive to the fact that his slightest move would mean a further collapse and instant death to the trapped man. The mon had been digging up a drain trench 14ft. deep at a private house known as Mayvern at Chcetham Hill, near Manchester, England, when the shoring collapsed and Inglis was instantly sucked down as far as his waist by quicksand. From five o’clock one evening the Manchester and Salford fire brigades, assisted by a medical man, worked unceasingly until early next morning in their attempt at rescue. Johnson could have been rescued quite early in tho proceedings, but with heroic fortitude he braved tho ordeal, knowing that the weight of his body alone prevented the total collapse of the excavation. At one time Inglis was buried up to his head and a holo had to be bored to enable him to breathe. Johnson was extricated first, and was laid, groaning, on a stretcher, and massaged. His first words were, “Is the other chap out!” Then, amid the cheers of the rescue party, Inglis was drawn up. Both men were so exhausted, however, that the doctor had to give each an injection. Inglis’ father, who had been an anxious spectator, of the scene, broke down as he bent over his son. Later Inglis said: <( My head and lungs felt as though they were bursting, and I could feel my feet gradually sinking. I was powerless and felt sure I was dying slowly. I owe my life to my mate, Ernie Johnson, who supported a load of earth for seven hours. When I was released I smoked 30 cigarettes.”