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Man dies in trench collapse at Fort Bragg

A trench collapse Thursday that killed a construction worker on Fort Bragg is so precarious that emergency workers must use their hands and buckets to dig the man's body out of the dirt, authorities said.

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FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A trench collapse Thursday that killed a construction worker on Fort Bragg is so precarious that emergency workers must use their hands and buckets to dig the man's body out of the dirt,  authorities said.

"The angle of the back of the bunker and the instability of the dirt is making the excavation of the body very difficult," said Calvin Bishop, a battalion commander with the Fayetteville Fire Department.

The accident happened about 11 a.m. in a trench near the Ammunition Supply Point on Manchester Road. Bishop said several thousand pounds of sand collapsed on the man, a civilian whose name was not immediately released.

Authorities said the trench was dug for the installation of pipes for a bunker and the Ammunition Supply Point. At some point in the construction, a large rock or large amount of dirt dislodged, prompting the collapse.

Bishop said the recovery effort was expected to take hours. The man's body still had not been freed from the trench early Friday.

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