Firefighters faced a tricky rescue Monday morning after a bulldozer slid down an embankment and rolled over at the National Gypsum plant in Waukegan.
Emergency crews responded at 6 a.m. to the National Gypsum plant, 515 East Sea Horse Drive in Waukegan. Firefighters found a man in his 60s trapped in the cab of a bulldozer that slid down an embankment and rolled over onto its side.
Fire officials said that the rescue was difficult because of the weather conditions and the fact that the crash happened over 250 feet from the nearest access road. The bulldozer was also in the middle of a 20-foot-wide trench next to a 40-foot pile of gypsum which was about the size of two football fields.
Authorities also said that it was raining at the time of the rescue and parts of the gypsum pile were frozen while others were thawing, which caused concerns about the stability of the pile.
Firefighters were at the scene for an hour and a half. The man was extricated from the bulldozer and transported by ambulance to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.
Officials said the man is expected to survive but he has serious injuries. The cause of the crash is unknown.
National Gypsum is a company that takes gypsum, a rocklike material, from around Lake Superior and converts it into drywall.