Trench collapse at Vancouver construction site sends 2 to hospital

Two workers were injured when a trench collapsed at a residential construction site on Vancouver's west side Thursday. (CTV)

Two workers were injured when a trench collapsed at a residential construction site on Vancouver's west side Thursday.

Shortly before 3 p.m., Vancouver Fire Rescue Services tweeted that it had been called to the 4400 block of Puget Drive to perform a technical rescue.

Crews had been digging a trench and building a retaining wall on a steep, terraced property in the area when it suddenly caved in, trapping two workers.

Michael Flaviani of AJAC Construction spoke to CTV News at the scene.

"One of my workers inside the hole got hit by the dirt falling as it caved in," he said. "One of my other workers was also in there and when that happened they dug him out and took him away. He got buried from the waist down and potentially broke one of his legs."

VFRS said its crews helped rescue three workers, two of whom were taken to hospital.

Flaviani said WorkSafeBC had just left the scene, and the agency confirmed in an email to CTV News that it had issued a stop-work order for the affected area of the work site. 

Asked what caused the slide, Flaviani said crews were following the plans for the site when they encountered the loose material that collapsed.

"We had a geotechnical engineer here the day before giving us site instructions, with design, on how to properly shore and terrace this property, and we did all that," he said.

"There was some material underneath what we thought was solid material that was not solid material. It was saturated with water. It was actually on the neighbour's property. And it didn't become apparent until we had cut to install our lock blocks for a retaining wall … Before anybody had a chance to be able to deal with it, it came down."