Title supplied by cataloger. 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. Oxygen is administered to Ralph Brissette, 33, the only known survivor at the time of the Metropolitan Water District tunnel blast. Photograph dated June 24, 1971.
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;17 x 25 cm. on sheet 21 x 26 cm. Photographic prints
Allied health personnel--California--Los Angeles Patients--California--Los Angeles Rescues--California--Los Angeles Men--California--Los Angeles Ambulances--California--Los Angeles Sylmar (Los Angeles, Calif.) Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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