38 | August• 2017
ONEBREATH AWAY
PHOTO: ARUNASMel used her phone to google
‘What to do when someone is
trapped in a dam’. At the top of
the list was the instruction that
no-one else should enter the dam
- it was too unstable. Reg got out
as other neighbours arrived.
On a nearby property, real
estate agent Charles Degotardi’s
pager went off. As captain of the
local Rural Fire Service, he rang
the station and was told someone
in the area was trapped under an
excavatorinadam,justupthe
road from the property he was
now inspecting.He’s probably
already dead, Charles thought.
There was no time to fetch
the fire truck, so he phoned his
senior deputy and drove around the
corner to the Miller property. He was
the first emergency services officer to
arrive. He could not believe the scene
that greeted him. A bunch of people
were gathered at the dam, all staring
at Daniel’s nose and eyes sticking out
of the brown water.
The fire truck arrived within seven
minutes. The absolute priority was to
lower the water in the dam, so Charles
and his colleagues grabbed the port-
able pump and set up the hoses over
the side of the dam. As the pump
kicked into action, they manoeuvred
the truck to the side of the dam and in-
serted a larger-volume pump as well.
Within a few minutes, the water
level had dropped below Daniel’s
nose and ears, and he could hear what
was being said. Everyone was con-
cerned about the excavator moving
and crushing him further. It had fallen
onto a boulder, which was keeping it
from sliding to the bottom of the dam.
But with only a few centimetres to go,
it was clear the three-tonne excavator
was about to slip off the large rock.
Police and ambulance began to
arrive, followed by Fire and Rescue
from Forster. Daniel watched them as
they approached the edge of the dam
one by one – the look of total disbelief
on their faces that he was still alive.
As the water dropped, it became
clear how incredibly lucky Daniel
had been. Had the boulder not been
there, he would have been crushed.
As it was, he was pinned in soft mud
yet miraculously, the full weight of the
machine was not on him.Back home with his family, Daniel says that his
options were simple: he could either fight or die