OAN Staff Abril Elfi
10:27 AM – Friday, July 11, 2025
Over two dozen industrial workers have been rescued after a tunnel collapsed in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD).
The incident was reported at around 8 p.m. in the 1700 block of South Figueroa Street, when authorities were notified that 27 individuals were trapped inside the tunnel. Subsequently, four additional workers entered in an attempt to assist with the rescue, but they, too, became trapped, bringing the total number of individuals stranded underground to 31.
Over 100 LAFD personnel, “including Urban Search and Rescue teams and Mayor Karen Bass (D-Calif.),” soon arrived at the scene.
According to L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, the construction workers were rescued about an hour after the collapse. Firefighters who spoke to the press explained that the construction workers climbed over a roughly “12 to 15-foot pile of dirt” in order to escape.
“I just spoke with many of the workers who were trapped,” Bass wrote. “Thank you to all of our brave first responders who acted immediately. You are L.A.’s true heroes.”
No serious injuries were reported. However, 27 of the workers were still medically evaluated by LAFD paramedics at the scene.
“Tonight, we were lucky,” said LAFD Interim Chief Ronnie Villanueva. “It was determined that a structure failure of the tunnel lining failed approximately five to six miles in.”
“We had an opportunity to speak with them. We had an opportunity to make sure that they were able to reach their family members. Their family members knew they were safe,” said Bass.
According to LAFD, the collapse of the 18-foot diameter tunnel, which is currently being built for municipal wastewater treatment by L.A. County Sanitation, occurred at an underground horizontal excavation site about five to six miles south of the tunnel’s solitary entry.
Villanueva claimed that a “structure failure of the tunnel lining” was to blame.
The tunnel is being constructed from the A.K. Warren Water Resource Facility to San Pedro. It was originally planned to be complete and operational by 2028, but the project has now been put on hold while an inquiry into what caused the collapse proceeds — authorities concluded.
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