A Kosciusko County man is saved by dozens of firefighters after he is trapped in a trench during an excavating accident.

Saturday afternoon nearly 100 firefighters were called out to free a man from a ditch in rural Kosciusko County.

36-year-old Jim Nichols of Winona Lake was working with the owner of Hamby and Sons Excavating, Donnie Hamby. They needed to replace a drain pipe in a bean field when a trench wall collapsed. It happened five miles south of Pierceton and one mile north of Sidney.

Hamby told police he had just removed a scoop of dirt and spun his equipment back around to the trench to find Nichols trapped. Hamby immediately called 911 and worked to free Nichols by digging him out by hand.

Nichols was initially buried in 6 feet of dirt. When crews arrived though Nichols was accessible from the waist up.

Rescue crews were able to stabilize the walls and remove the soil. Nichols was freed within a couple of hours yet could have been seriously hurt by the pressure while locked in one place.

“You run into crush syndrome when it shunts the blood from the legs. The blood doesn't flow correctly. It is actually a life threatening situation just being buried that deep,” explains Lt. Aaron Boling from the Warsaw Fire Dept.

Nichols was conscious and talking during the rescue.

He was flown to Parkview Memorial Hospital in Ft. Wayne. As of Sunday night, he is in stable condition.

Officials do not know if safety equipment was used during the excavating job.