Brothers Rigoberto Guevera, 18, and Samuel Guevera, 25, worked long hours at local construction jobs to support family members back home in El Salvador.
Around 4 p.m. last Wednesday, they were digging a trench and waterproofing a house on Potomac School Drive in the Avenel neighborhood.
They had completed digging on the right side of the house and were almost done with the left side. Suddenly, the ground – soft and heavy from recent rainfall — collapsed on top of the laborers. A third man who had been working in the ditch was able to quickly escape the miniature landslide, but the brothers were trapped. Only the head and shoulders of one were visible above the dirt.
After the homeowner called 911, more than 50 rescue workers assembled at the site.
“When we got there we could see one gentleman. He was unconscious but appeared to be breathing,” said deputy chief Tommy Jones of the Cabin John Fire Department.
A special collapse rescue team – the same group that responded to the Oklahoma City Bombing and the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon – arrived to try to save the two men. Despite their expertise, they were unsuccessful.
“For about an hour or so … we worked in a rescue mode attempting to stabilize the trench and get the men out,” said Pete Piringer, spokesperson for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue. After it became clear that the Gueveras were dead, “it turned into a recovery action.”
After removing large areas of dirt with heavy equipment, the team got into the trench with hand tools, and the bodies were finally extricated around 9:30 p.m.
“Having a person in the dirt, you have to dig very gingerly,” said Jones. “You could hit them in the head, so you have to be very gentle.”
How can a pile of dirt be a killer?
“That dirt weighs quite a bit – it’s soft and very, very heavy,” said Jones, who likened the collapse to “4,000 pounds of pressure.”
“When [earth] falls, it moves at 25-30 miles per hour,” said Piringer. “In a hole that size they were probably buried in about 250 cubic feet of dirt.”
The brothers could have died from crushing injuries or what Piringer called “compartmentalization.”
"The pressure exerted can be fatal because of what it does to your blood pressure," he said. "It can cut off vital organs … even if you’re just covered to the waist. When your chest is covered it is very difficult to breathe. The body shuts down."
“When you breathe out your lungs contract,” said Jones. “Every time you do that, whatever room you had to breathe the dirt is pressing more and more. Within a few minutes they could suffocate.”
Over a dozen of the victims’ family members gathered in the yard during the rescue – first to pray for safe recovery, and then to witness the extrication of the bodies.
A fourth worker on the site, whom Piringer described as a man in his 60s, had to be taken to the hospital for dehydration and emotional trauma.
“I’m sure the neighbors were going through a traumatic experience as well,” said Jones. “You don’t expect a tragic accident like this when you hire people to do work.”
“I can certainly say that Cabin John and the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue collapse rescue team certainly put in 110 percent effort,” added Jones. “That’s why they make laws and procedures that if you dig down deep you must shore up. [The contractors] didn’t follow that protocol. Our business is to help save lives, but sometimes unfortunately we cannot.”
Maryland state law requires that trenches deeper than 4-feet, 11-inches be shored up to prevent caving in. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue workers do not enter a trench deeper than four feet without shoring it up first. The trench that the Gueveras dug was estimated at eight-to-10 feet deep and two feet wide, and it was not supported at all.
“Trenches are extremely dangerous and there are requirements that have to be followed by the employer,” said Linda Sherman, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
“The earth will collapse if a trench is dug – it’s just a matter of when. [The workers] must have a way out” of the trench, such as a ladder.
Sherman said that an investigation is underway to determine who the employer of the men was. She said that in many cases, the answer is not clear-cut.
“It can be very confusing as to who hired whom for what,” she said.
Peter Drymalski, an investigator with Montgomery County’s Office of Consumer Protection, said that liability only rests with homeowners in rare cases.
“If the homeowner hires a contractor and two of his people get injured or killed … the homeowner is only liable for his own negligence,” he said. “If [the homeowner] was aware of a dangerous condition, then he might be liable to the people who were injured as a result of the failure to disclose the damaged condition,” such as a damaged roof.
In the case of the trench deaths, Drymalski doesn’t believe the owner of the house is at fault, though the contractor may be.
“The homeowner is not liable because he doesn’t control the work,” said the investigator. “He hires a contractor and relies on the contractor to do the work properly. He doesn’t have control over how the contractor is doing on the job and can’t be responsible for mistakes the contractor might be making.”
Nonetheless, Drymalski recommended that homeowners check contractors' licensing status before hiring them.
“If it’s a home improvement contract, they should be licensed with state’s Home Improvement Commission.”
The phone number for the commission is 410-230-6309.
“[The commission] would require the contractor to pass a written test and provide bond and worker’s compensation.”