A construction worker was rescued from a precarious situation by Fairfax County firefighters this afternoon after getting stuck down a 40-foot concrete pit in Lorton.
Units with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department were dispatched at 1:46 p.m. to the Noman M. Cole, Jr. Water Recycling Facility (9399 Richmond Highway) after the worker became suspended below ground while working on upgrades at the wastewater treatment plant.
“Patient was on a harness, and he was going down into a 40-foot pit, and his harness locked up on him,” a responding firefighter said on the emergency scanner.
According to the FCFRD:
Upon arrival, firefighters initiated rescue operations involving multiple technical rescue units. Command lead a coordinated response with rescue, safety, and landing groups teams to execute a safe extraction. Due to the depth and confined nature of the location, crews established a tower ladder as a backup plan while preparing the primary extraction method.
Firefighters ultimately enlisted a construction crane on the site to lower a rescue basket into the pit that they then used to lift the worker up to ground level.
The worker was transported to a hospital in non-life-threatening condition, the FCFRD said.
Construction is currently underway on a rehabilitation of the Noman Cole plant, which processes approximately 40 million gallons of wastewater a day from across Northern Virginia.
“The scope includes 106 elements to improve the safety and operations for the next 15 years,” the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services’ project page says, estimating that work will be complete in March 2027.
Additional upgrades are planned in the coming years, including replacements of incineration facilities for solid waste and the existing wastewater pump station. DPWES contracted Clark Construction for all of the projects.
