The Associated Press
 AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Seattle Fire Dept. and other rescuers carry a worker to an ambulance who became trapped in a powder avalanche at a cement plant in Seattle, Friday. |
SEATTLE — Firefighters have rescued a worker who was trapped in a powder avalanche at the Ash Grove cement plant in Seattle. He was carried out on a stretcher about 1 p.m. Friday, after being pinned in a front-loader for about 1 1/2 hours.
Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick says the worker was conscious and talking and had been using a breathing device as rescuers dug away the cement. She says he had been caught under a wall of collapsing cement in a large storage dome.
Dozens of rescuers waded through spilled cement as it turned into mud in the rain. They also used a vacuum truck to remove cement.
The plant is in an industrial area of south Seattle near the Duwamish River.