Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
A Winona Lake man spent about two hours buried up to his shoulders after a drainage trench he was working in collapsed on him in Kosciusko County on Saturday, authorities said.
Jim Nichols, 36, was flown to Parkview Hospital after rescue crews freed him from the 6-foot-deep, 2-foot-wide trench shortly after 6 p.m. He was listed in critical condition Sunday.
Nichols and another man were digging a ditch in a soybean field near Kosciusko County Roads 800 South and 700 East about 4 p.m. when one of the trench walls collapsed, police said.
The other man tried to free Nichols by digging by hand but was unable.
Firefighters from several departments worked for about two hours to stabilize the trench walls and to free Nichols. When they pulled Nichols out, he was conscious but in critical condition, police say.
Firefighters battled a northeast-side attic fire for about 15 minutes after the residents of the home said that they had smelled smoke for hours before reporting the blaze.
Crews were called to 5418 Forest Ave., near East State Boulevard, about 6 p.m. and found heavy smoke coming from the attic of the single-story house, the Fort Wayne fire department said.
They brought the fire under control about 15 minutes after arriving. The home sustained moderate smoke and fire damage.
The occupants said they had smelled smoke for hours before calling, but couldn’t determine where it was coming from.
No one was injured and the cause is under investigation.
Police in Noble County raided a Wawaka house early Saturday after they smelled a methamphetamine lab in it, authorities said.
Officers were in Wawaka when they smelled the odor of an active meth lab at the home about 12:30 a.m. Police from several agencies surrounded the residence and tried to coax two men out, according to police.
When the men wouldn’t leave, police called the Northeast Indiana SWAT Team to the scene. Officers raided the house about 3:15 a.m. and found an active meth lab, several precursors for making the drug as well as a sawed-off shotgun.
They arrested 22-year-old Roy E. Brickey Jr., of Syracuse, and 44-year-old Thomas W. Gibson, of Radcliff, Ky., on charges of dealing meth and maintaining a common nuisance. They were being held without bail.
