Overview

• More than 100 Los Angeles Fire Department personnel, including specialized search-and-rescue teams, raced to the South Figueroa Street site after the tunnel gave way.
• The collapse occurred about eight kilometers from the tunnel’s only entrance and left workers stranded behind a four-meter-high mound of loose earth.
• Trapped crew members climbed over debris and were then evacuated in sealed transport capsules, emerging alive after roughly an hour underground with no visible injuries.
• The 11-kilometer-long, 5.5-meter-wide conduit is part of the $630.5 million Clearwater Project to replace Los Angeles’s aging mid-20th-century sewer tunnels.
• The Sanitation Department, working with fire officials, is examining support systems and construction records to identify the collapse’s causes and strengthen safety protocols.