Coroner IDs Worker Killed In Pool-Digging Collapse

ORANGE, CA — The Orange County Coroner's office identified the worker killed in a pool collapse over the weekend.

Luciano Gonzalez Munoz, 45, died in a private backyard in the city of Orange when a swimming pool wall he was digging collapsed, according to Supervising Deputy Coroner Larry Esslinger.

Workers assembled a crane to lower a protective steel cage into the hole so that the Munoz's body could be recovered without the threat of another collapse, according to Orange Fire Capt. Ryan O'Connor.

The collapse was first reported shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday in the 6200 block of East Cliffway Drive, O'Connor said.

Munoz and four other men were digging out the pool when part of a wall collapsed around him. He was buried up to his shoulders, according to O'Connor.

Urban Search and Rescue units from Orange, the Orange County Fire Authority, Anaheim, and Huntington Beach were called to the scene as the first-arriving firefighters were lowered into the hole with ropes and began trying to clear the dirt away from the buried worker.

Then, a secondary wall collapse occurred, causing the man to be completely buried.

Still, firefighters continued to work to save him for more than two hours, O'Connor said.

About 1:30 p.m., the effort changed to a search for the man's body, which continued Sunday.

CalOSHA was investigating the collapse, he said.