PORT ANGELES — A man whose mobile home collapsed on top of him when a jack holding it up slipped out of place was reported in satisfactory condition Tuesday at a Seattle hospital.
Dennis Toepke, 64, of Port Angeles was trying to level his new 10-foot-by-40-foot coach at about 9 p.m. Monday when one of the leveling jacks slipped out of place, according to Capt. Mike DeRousie, one of the rescuers with Clallam County Fire District No. 2.
Doug Hyatt, who was at the house site with other construction workers Tuesday, identified Toepke and said that he had been told the man suffered a crushed pelvis and elbow along with a broken shoulder.
“He rolled out of the way, but it pinned him on his arm,” DeRousie said.
“He was able to talk to us and everything, but he wasn’t able to free himself.”
Neither Hyatt nor DeRousie knew why Toepke was working on leveling the structure at 1818 W. Lauridsen Blvd. after dark.
DeRousie said rescuers brought inflatable bags that lifted the 7-ton coach up, allowing the team to slide a board under Toepke and pull him free.
“We also called in the Port Angeles Fire Department because they have some heavy rescue [bags], and we just have the regular ones,” he said.
Ultimately, the heavier bags were not needed, but the department wanted them on hand in case the smaller ones were not enough, he said.
“He did have his arm pinned under there and was lying on the ground for a while in 37-degree weather,” DeRousie said.
Hyatt said Toepke’s mobile home had just arrived this week.
A Clallam County Fire District No. 2 ambulance took Toepke to Olympic Medical Center, where he was stabilized and then transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, said OMC representatives.
Harborview representatives said Tuesday afternoon that Toepke was no longer in the intensive care unit and was in stable condition.
A total of 16 firefighters and three paramedics in a command vehicle, fire engine, ambulance and utility unit responded to the scene, DeRousie said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
