"We can't just jump in the trench and start digging," Durham Fire Capt. William Towner said at the scene. "Because a collapse caused the accident, secondary collapses are the No. 1 killers to the rescuers. We need to put shoring and sheeting in. The trench had already been compromised because of one collapse, so we had to take precautions."

The rescue was also hampered by a language barrier between the Spanish-speaking workers, identified as Raul and Jorge Bartolo-Victor, and English-speaking rescuers. A bilingual city public works employee arrived to translate.

At first, one worker refused to come out of the hole, instead trying to dig out his older brother. But after firefighters assured him his brother was safe, he was pulled up a ladder, caked with dirt and looking stunned.

More firefighters clambered into the 12-by-3-foot rectangular hole, quickly handing down wood panels to stabilize the walls of the ditch. They braced the panels with an expandable metal tube.

Towner said the older brother's leg was stuck under a pipe. Firefighters then slid a yellow plastic gurney into the trench, and the man was tied down and lifted up. He moaned as emergency workers checked his body for pain. The younger brother, whose arm was placed in a sling, suffered shoulder pain, according to Tom Scott, operations supervisor for Durham Emergency Services. Scott said the older brother had a broken pelvis and leg. Both were taken to Duke Hospital and listed in good condition Tuesday evening.

The men work for Canco Construction NC, which was extending a sewer line to a new church being built by Immanuel Baptist Church on Rose of Sharon Road, Towner said. A Canco official in Durham said the brothers were fine but declined to comment further.

The state Department of Labor investigated, but officials could not be reached for comment. A trench box, used to shore trenches and protect workers, was on site, firefighters said, but was not used as required. Occupational Safety & Health Administration guidelines mandate shoring of trenches more than 5 feet deep, Towner said. "We prepare and train for this every month," he said. "This is actually our first rescue since we made this team."