At least 15 people trapped after tunnel collapses in LA

The Los Angeles Fire Department rushed to Wilmington after a tunnel collapsed and trapped at least 15 people inside.

Authorities have not been able to contact the people trapped inside. The tunnel collapse appeared to damage communication lines. 

LAFD has sent a massive amount of resources, including all of their Urban Search and Rescue teams, to the 1700 block of South Figueroa Street. Firefighters said the collapse happened as many as six miles away from the sole access point of the tunnel. 

A handful of construction workers were being hoisted from a crane to the surface at roughly 8:55 p.m.   

The collapse happened at the $630.5 million Los Angeles Effluent Outfall Tunnel project commissioned by the Los Angeles County Sanitation District.

Flatiron Dragados, the prime contractor for the construction, wrote on its website that the tunnel is 7 miles long, about 18 feet wide and 450 feet below ground level. The company wrote that the new project will enable crews to repair aging tunnels constructed in 1937 and 1958.

Completion of the tunneling aspect of the project was scheduled for 2025, according to documents from the L.A. County Sanitation Department from July 2024.  The company aimed to complete the wastewater management project by 2027.