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by JOSE MARTINEZ
Cops and firefighters used their hands, shovels and buckets yesterday to dig two Staten Island workers out of a trench that collapsed and buried the pair chest-high in dirt.
Benny Chayt and Jorge Hoyas were trapped for 20 minutes when the hole caved in shortly before 2 p.m. on the site of a future supermarket in New Dorp.
As the injured construction workers gasped for breath, emergency service cops delicately dug by hand and with small tools while trying to keep Hoyas, 31, from losing consciousness.
"I said, 'Jorge, keep talking to me,'" said Police Officer Mike Carbonara. "I kept asking him if he could feel his legs, anything to keep him talking."
The two men were swallowed up when the trench, which was being prepared for a pipeline, gave way - and then more material dropped into the pit when co-workers tried to help.
"It was just dirt and bricks compressing them from all directions," said Detective Anthony Perosi.
Cops and firefighters said the two workers could have been in far worse shape if not for the rescuers' quick response and teamwork. Firefighters arrived as cops were pulling Chayt from the hole, and contributed to Hoyas' rescue.
"If he [Hoyas] was totally buried, it would have been an awful story," said Fire Lt. Steve Brown of Rescue 5.
The collapse came on the future site of a Stop & Shop supermarket on Tysens Lane. The contractor, New Jersey-based Heartland Building and Development Cos., declined to comment.
Chayt and Hoyas were in stable condition at Staten Island University Hospital last night.
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