NewsChannel 13 has new details on a cave rescue in Columbia Co.<\/p>\n
CANAAN, N.Y. (WNYT)- A Brooklyn man was freed after rescuers spent hours reaching him in a tight cave crevice in Columbia County.<\/p>\n
Related: Continental Army soldiers laid to rest in Lake George after 250 years<\/a><\/p>\n The man was spelunking with friends in Merlin\u2019s Cave in Canaan on the evening of May 17 when he slipped and got wedged in a tight space.<\/p>\n Rescuers from the National Cave Rescue Commission and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) began what officials described as a difficult rescue operation. DEC Forest Ranger Lt. John Gullen said the man was trapped in a narrow crevice.<\/p>\n \u201cHis whole body was stuck in a crevice that was basically designed the exact shape of him,\u201d Gullen said.<\/p>\n With temperatures at 50 degrees underground and 100-percent humidity, hypothermia was a major concern.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it was clear he was really jammed in by this one nub of rock that was pinning his rib cage and also on his back,\u201d Gullen said.<\/p>\n The only option was to get a hammer drill into the tight spot to chip away rock and free him. Gullen said it took nearly two hours to get the drill down into that space and he stayed with the man to keep him calm.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was stuck for a total of six hours unable to move in basically in any direction. For most people, that\u2019s like their worst nightmare,\u201d Gullen said.<\/p>\n Related: College of Saint Rose library books to be auctioned by Albany Co.<\/a><\/p>\n Finally, another team member crawled in with the drill and began breaking away rock near the man\u2019s body.<\/p>\n \u201cThen I started to get to work. I was drilling you know inches from the subject\u2019s head and back so I had to be very careful,\u201d Gullen said.<\/p>\n After a small piece of rock was removed, the man was able to wiggle free and get to safety.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we were able to get to a point where we could high five, we were high fiving. He was quite happy,\u201d Gullen said.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0Rescue<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0New York State Department of Environmental Conservation<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0National Cave Rescue Commission<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Columbia County<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NewsChannel 13 has new details on a cave rescue in Columbia Co. CANAAN, N.Y. (WNYT)- A Brooklyn man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,3898,93707,9,24,2198,63,9494],"class_list":["post-239800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-columbia-county","tag-national-cave-rescue-commission","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state-department-of-environmental-conservation","tag-nyc","tag-rescue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}