by JONATHAN LEMIRE
Firefighters frantically dug out a day laborer who was buried under dirt and rock Thursday after a ditch in a Queens cemetery caved in.
A crew of workers was using an excavator to dig a 15-foot-deep dry well in Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village when one of the freshly dug ditch's walls collapsed onto the laborer just before 10:30a.m.
"He was buried to the waist and screaming in pain when we got there a few minutes later," said Capt. Thomas Haughney, 44, of Ladder 140. "I was really worried about a secondary collapse but we had to go in and get him."
Haughney and Firefighters Al Barroca and Pat Grisafi dug feverishly with shovels and then their hands while warily inspecting the other walls.
"It rained all night and one of the other walls looked shaky," said Haughney, a 19-year veteran. "We had to move quickly - that whole thing could have come down quickly."
The injured worker was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital Center. He suffered a broken right leg and a dislocated hip, Haughney said.
"We were in harm's way for a while there," Haughney said. "But really, it went as smoothly as we could've hoped."
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