KAILUA-KONA — An unresponsive 72-year-old man was pulled from a shaft Monday morning, according to the Hawaii Fire Department.
The department was called at 10:17 a.m. for a missing person and after searching the victim’s property on the 2600 block of Poki Place in Kaumana, officers found a freshly caved in part of the manicured property; exposing a shaft. At the bottom of the 25- to 30-foot deep shaft the male occupant of the home was observed unresponsive. HFD Rescue was called in to extricate the victim.
In district Kaumana Fire Station (East Hawaii’s HazMat station) personnel and HFD Waiakea Rescue Company 2 set up a rappel and belay system, lowering a rescue man down the shaft using a Supplied Air Breathing Apparatus (air delivered from tanks on the surface via a hose to the rescuer), as the shaft was too small for typical fire fighting SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) equipment.
The victim was packaged in extremely tight quarters and brought to the surface for HPD’s continued investigation. There were no other injuries reported.