3 Workers Trapped In Wet Concrete

Three construction workers were trapped up to their waists in hardening concrete for an hour Tuesday after a section of new floor collapsed and dropped with the men onto a lower level.

Other workers frantically mixed sugar into the concrete to slow its hardening. Rescuers then had to use power saws to cut through a tangle of stiffening concrete, steel reinforcing rods and scaffolding.

Concrete was being poured for the third floor of a new city jail annex when scaffolding and forms fell through the center of the floor.

Seven workers and about 80 cubic yards of fresh concrete plummeted 10 feet onto the floor.

None of the workers’ injuries was life-threatening.