Ralph Brissette, 33, of Pacoima, who had been loading slag onto cars at the rear of the work area, was knocked down when a pocket of natural gas exploded in the midst of a crew of workers drilling a Metropolitan Water District tunnel 250 feet beneath Sylmar. He was able to stagger, semiconscious, toward the east portal more than four miles away, and was rescued by two Lockheed workers, John Wallace and John Rathburn, who were 300 feet from the site when they heard Brisette's shout for help. They found Brissette, put him on a car and headed for the Gate Shaft. A steel basket lowered by a crane was waiting at the bottom of the shaft, and Brissette was lifted from the concrete-lined opening, placed in an ambulance, and taken to Pacoima Lutheran Hospital. Photograph caption dated September 3, 1971 reads, "Lone Survivor Tells Of Blast - Ralph Brissette gives emotional account of disaster."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;25 x 20 cm. on sheet 26 x 21 cm. Photographic prints
Men--California--Los Angeles Accident investigation--California--Los Angeles Accident victims--California--Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Calif.) Sylmar (Los Angeles, Calif.) Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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