UPDATE: Effort now recovery, not rescue

POINT MACKENZIE — Emergency responders continue to search for a man who was trapped this morning when a a well he was working in collapsed. What started as an effort to rescue the man, who has not been identified, has now turned into a recovery mission, said Steve Standley, chief of enforcement for the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Administration office.

Medics and firefighters responded after an emergency call was made at 8:55 a.m., said Clint Vardeman, the Mat-Su Borough’s deputy director of emergency services. By 9:30 a.m., the effort to rescue the man at a location near Point MacKenzie road and West Reddane Avenue included first responders and a medical helicopter.

“It came in as a cave-in, a man working by a well casing that collapsed around him,” Vardeman said.

By 3:15 p.m., work to locate the man continued and the determination to reclassify the effort from a rescue attempt to recovery had been made.

Check back here or read tomorrow’s Frontiersman for more on this story.