REGINA -- A man was rushed to hospital by ambulance Friday afternoon after he was injured during a fall into a basement that was under construction in southeast Regina.

Witnesses said the man, believed to be about 25 years old, had been directing a hose pouring concrete into forms for the basement walls of a house in the 3600 block of Green Bank Road. He was knocked down by a boom or its attached hose extending out from a concrete pump truck, which sank and shifted on the excavated dirt shortly before 2 p.m.

“It caught him in the middle of the back,” said a man who was among a crew from Town and Country Plumbing and Heating working on another house across the street from the accident.

“It’s not nice to see someone get hurt like that,” added another in the group. Both declined to give their names. With so many homes under construction in the Greens on Gardiner neighbourhood, “we get pretty familiar with everyone out here,” he said, adding that one of the crew had been speaking to the man only moments before the fall.

Workers said the walls were about three metres high, and the man had been situated near the top. There is a platform on the inner top of the walls.

The extent of the man’s injuries were unclear Friday, but they are not believed to be life-threatening.

Regina Fire Department (RFD) acting assistant chief Barry Stephen said firefighters and paramedics initially stablized the man. Then RFD called in its technical rescue team — with specialized training in rescues from high rises and trenches — to lift the man from the unfinished basement.

He said the team used a special, basket-type stretcher to carry the man up a ladder and out of the unfinished basement. “You have to be careful of further injury,” he added, explaining that straps on the stretcher ensure he is stablized during the move.

A spokesperson with Occupation Health and Safety said the agency is investigating.