LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Firefighters in Kentucky’s largest city rescued a person trapped under rubble Thursday during an hour-long operation at a construction site near the city’s downtown.

The rescue was broadcast live on local Louisville television stations hours after the construction worker fell and debris fell on him around midday Thursday. Paramedics were on hand to place the worker on a stretcher, cover him with a blanket and transport him to an ambulance under bright lights set up to aid rescue efforts.

A rescuer patted the worker on the back as he was hoisted from the scene.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg praised the rescue team for “saving the life of an individual who was in serious danger all day today.”

Greenberg said rescuers had an “incredibly difficult trench rescue.” He said the Louisville Fire crew “came to the rescue again today and rescued this individual” who was transported to the University of Louisville Hospital.

Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill reported earlier that the worker spoke with rescuers but could not move. The worker was about 10 to 12 feet underground, O’Neill said.

After the rescue, O’Neill said the construction worker was part of a demolition crew working on the site and fell into an “empty space.”

“All kinds of rubble, dirt and rocks completely buried this individual,” he said, leaving him not only trapped but “completely buried.”

The team – specializing in trench and confined space rescue – arrived within minutes and “they were able to talk to him”, O’Neill said. “He was very lucky to have a little empty space around him. So he was able to breathe.”

Rescuers continued working to free the worker Thursday evening after dark. Officials had a crane and ladders to enter the hole, which was several meters wide.

The fire chief said the worker was buried and trapped under gravel, dirt and large chunks of concrete, forcing them to dig up the debris by hand, clearing the area around the arms and chest of the man so that he can receive medical help.

Five other workers were at the scene when the man fell. They were working on the site of a former prison building that was being demolished to make way for a medical campus.

The fire chief called it “a very long, very tedious, very slow process to do it safely, to make sure that you don’t cause additional injury to the person.”

“All credit goes to the firefighters here in Louisville,” O’Neill said. “The men and women of the Louisville Fire Department that came here, used their skills, used their talents, used their absolute tenacity to get in there, dig this person out.”

Earlier this week, a few miles away, a Louisville manufacturing plant exploded, killing two workers and damaging dozens of nearby homes. The cause of the explosion is not yet known.