Man Rescued From Coal Cavern

A bizarre accident trapped a man in a giant coal cavern for hours Monday.

Police near Trenton said that around 8 a.m., Scott Ekleburg was moving coal with a bulldozer at the Duck Island Power Plant when the machine plunged into the pit. The heavy machine flipped over and fell into what officials called a narrow cavern of coal. Rescuers had to use a crane to get to him.

The plant is located along the Delaware River, south of Trenton.

Ekleburg, a worker for the Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), was trapped for nearly three hours. He yelled with pain as he was strapped and lifted 100 feet out of the hole at the PSEG energy plant.

"There was danger the whole time. We were unable to shore up the hole due to the size," said Gus Tackacs, of Trenton Rescue 1.

Rescuers said that, at any moment without warning, the men could have been buried alive by an avalanche of coal.

It was Tackacs who strapped on a harness and lowered himself into the hole.

"I reassured him the whole time. I told him he would probably be in some pain, but we were going to get him out of here," Tackacs remembered.

Tackacs said the bulldozer was partially buried and that he had to first dig Ekleburg out without disturbing the mountain of coal around them.

He said Ekleburg was conscious but in pain, so he kept talking to him.

"Just about anything. He mentioned that it was his first day back from vacation. And I said, 'That's funny, this is my last day before my vacation,'" Tackacs said.

The victim, who has been with PSEG about 18 years, injured his arm and was taken to a local hospital.

The next step, officials said, is figuring out what went wrong. As for Tackacs, he said saving people is what he does.

"Just glad to help out. Glad everything went well," Tackacs said.

Ekleburg reportedly injured his arm in the accident.

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