Firefighters rescue 31 workers after tunnel collapses in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Fire Department rushed to Wilmington after a tunnel collapsed and trapped 31 people inside.

The construction workers inside the underground tunnel were rescued roughly an hour after the collapse, according to L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who represents the area. 

LAFD sent a massive amount of resources, including all of their Urban Search and Rescue teams, to the 1700 block of South Figueroa Street. Firefighters said the collapse happened as many as six miles away from the sole access point of the tunnel. 

“The City of Los Angeles has mobilized resources to the tunnel collapse in Wilmington,” Mayor Karen Bass wrote in a post to X. More than 100 LAFD responders have been deployed, including Urban Search and Rescue teams. Thank you to all of those who are acting immediately to respond to this emergency.”

The collapse happened at the $630.5 million Los Angeles Effluent Outfall Tunnel, which is part of the Los Angeles County Sanitation District’s Clearwater Project.

Flatiron Dragados, the prime contractor for the construction, wrote on its website that the tunnel is 7 miles long, about 18 feet wide and 450 feet below ground level. The company wrote that the new project will enable crews to repair aging wastewater management tunnels constructed in 1937 and 1958.

Crews were expected to complete the tunneling aspect of the project by April 2025, according to documents from the L.A. County Sanitation Department from July 2024. County staff aimed to complete the project by 2027 and activate the new tunnel by January 2028.