Video: Miner recalls heroic efforts to save his co-workers from drowning

Miner Hoip “Ali” Swaby tried to catch his breath as thousands of gallons of water gushed into his workspace, 110 feet underground.

An old sewer main had ruptured while Swaby and two co-workers were doing excavation work in a tunnel in Fall River. 

Within seconds, the water was up to Swaby’s neck. The radio went out. Darkness enveloped Swaby and his co-workers. Within 10 minutes, 85,000 gallons of water had poured in around the men.

I will never survive this, Swaby  thought.

“I thought about them —  the kids and the wife — and I said, ‘That’s it. It’s over,’” said Swaby, 42, as he sat in the living room of his Georgene Road home in Brockton last week.

Swaby, a married father of two young boys, was awarded a Carnegie Hero medal recently for his courage in helping to save his two co-workers from drowning on Oct. 19, 2007.

He was among 19 people who received the medal nationwide this year.

Last year, he was also named an “Everyday Hero” by Reader’s Digest for his actions in that same incident.

Deep below the surface that fateful day, as the water gushed around them, Swaby and his co-workers began feeling their way to higher ground. Swaby expected someone from ground level would shut off the water flow, but that never happened, he said.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Swaby saw something bobbing in the water — the yellow “man-cage” that hoists workers up to ground level.

“If the machine is bobbing in the water, that means we’re all dead,” Swaby recalled thinking, since the machine is so heavy. He hung onto the cage.

Crane operator Mike Salvador of Fall River, above ground at the sewer overflow project, had lowered the “man-cage” to hoist the men up after hearing their cries. He couldn’t see more than 20 feet down.

Only Swaby made it into the cage the first time and it was hoisted to the surface.

When workers at ground level saw him, they pleaded with Swaby not to go down again, said Swaby’s boss, Tom Mattuchio, owner of Mattuchio Construction in Malden, which was a partner with the company working the Fall River job that day.

Mattuchio planned to rescue Swaby, and then change to a recovery effort for the other two men below — following industry safety regulations, he said.

But the 6-foot  4-inch, 250-pound Swaby screamed to send him back down.

“He never came out of the cage,” Mattuchio said. “He was still in the cage in the shaft. He was mad. He said, ‘No. I know I can get them, you’ve got to send me back down.’”

Swaby brought a flashlight to show his co-workers, John P. Kanash, 49, of Barnstead, N.H., and Kenneth H. Schofield, 45, of Framingham, the way to the cage as the water reached their heads.

Swaby first saw Schofield, who was hanging onto a pump hose trying to rise above the water. He swam over to Swaby, who grabbed him and pulled him into the cage.

Swaby then saw Kanash, who was above him, clinging to mesh that miners use to support rock.
Kanash jumped onto the cage, and Swaby said he pulled him in. Within moments, the cage hoisted the three men to the surface.

“It’s very difficult to work with a guy every day and walk away and leave him. You can’t do it. You’ve got to get him,” Swaby said, recalling his efforts.

Swaby was born in Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. in 1989, he said. He lived in Florida, Boston and Mansfield before moving to Brockton in 1999. He has worked as a  miner for 10 years.
After his 4-year-old son, Matt, was diagnosed with autism, Swaby said he started a charity, Sandhogs Fight Autism, to raise money for autism research and awareness.

Sandhog is a slang term for urban miners and construction workers who work underground on excavation projects.

Last week, Swaby embraced and lifted up his son, Matt, as his 8-year-old son, David, played nearby. His wife, Moya, 39, went about the house doing work.

Swaby thought about his family during those horrific moments in Fall River, and of Kanash, who has four children, and Schofield, who has three children, he said.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he said of their rescue.

Maria Papadopoulos can be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com.