Unity firefighters received honors for their response to Marguerite mine sinkhole

When firefighters serving with a Westmoreland County trench rescue team arrived near a Unity restaurant in early December to help search for a woman who had fallen into an abandoned mine sinkhole, it didn’t take long for them to realize that this incident would challenge them in new ways.

Until heavy equipment arrived to create a larger opening into the mine, “The hole was only 3 feet in diameter,” recalled Steven Rosatti, a rescue team member from the Forbes Road Volunteer Fire Department.

As crew members stood within a half-foot-wide border of sod surrounding the hole, he said, “We used a pair of binoculars to look down there with a flashlight.”

Normally, a response to an emergency in Unity might involve up to 50 firefighters from local departments working an average of four hours at the scene, said Scot Graham of the Marguerite Volunteer Fire Department.

Graham, who was the incident commander at the scene, said, “We knew we were going to be there for more than eight hours.”

Ultimately, the sinkhole incident involved more than 120 first responders and lasted nearly 102 hours, Graham said.

At Thursday’s meeting of the Unity Township supervisors, 76 firefighters from among six local companies and a township command post were awarded unit citations for their part in the multi-day effort to recover the body of 64-year-old township resident Elizabeth Pollard near the village of Marguerite.

Pollard, whose death was attributed to head and torso injuries, fell about 30 feet into the sinkhole behind Monday’s Union Restaurant while searching for her cat Dec. 2.

“This technical rescue required an extreme advanced skill set by all personnel,” the citation notes.

Once the rescue effort turned into one of recovery, Graham said, “It wasn’t the outcome that we wanted.”

But, he added that emergency crews were able to achieve their primary goals: “To find Elizabeth and get her back to her family, and do it safely.”

Forbes Road firefighter Fred Cecchini was the designated safety officer at the scene.

He said the first responders had to combine a range of skills from their training — including monitoring hazardous environments and working with ropes and in confined spaces.

Despite being labeled as a county team, the trench rescue team does not receive any county funding, Cecchini said.

“Equipment and training comes from each (fire) department,” he said. “It’s a grassroots effort.”

As the response at the sinkhole progressed, tiered levels were created at the edge of the cavity, allowing firefighters to descend on ladders while tethered to a safety rope.

The oxygen level in the mine dropped to just 17% when the first crews were ready to descend to begin digging soil by hand, said John Bacha of the Pleasant Unity Volunteer Fire Department. Bacha was the operations chief for responders at the site.

“That changed our game plan tremendously,” he said, requiring firefighters to don air tanks and prompting a call for additional manpower and equipment from a larger area.

“The average guy with an air tank on his back can work about 30 minutes, and that’s pushing it,” Bacha said.

“Once they came out of the hole, they didn’t go home,” Graham said. “They went to rest, got something to eat and then they were assigned another task.”

Graham said the first responders relied on an array of resources to support their efforts.

Township road workers kept emergency vehicles fueled and repaired; Ligonier Construction and the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County provided equipment for excavating the hole; Monday’s Union offered food and shelter for the firefighters, supplemented by donations from other restaurants and churches.

State police, the Pennsylvania Urban Search and Rescue Team and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mines were among additional agencies that helped.

Still, there were some unforeseen needs, including providing fuel for heaters needed to warm crews overnight.

“We ran out of kerosene,” said Wayne Forsyth of the Marguerite department, who was in charge of logistics and accountability. “Where are you going to get kerosene at 2 o’clock in the morning?”

One of the largest challenges that the emergency crews met was bringing so many disparate personnel and resources under a single chain of command.

“The teamwork of everybody on the scene sticks with me the most, even with guys we don’t work with on a regular basis,” said Bob Rosatti, of the Forbes Road department and trench rescue team. “It was absolutely flawless.

The area firefighters honored for their efforts at the sinkhole include: 18 members of the Pleasant Unity department; 12 members of the Marguerite department; 11 members of the Dryridge department; 10 each of the Lloydsville department and the township command post; nine of the Forbes Road department; and six of the Crabtree department.