 And next thing you know, I seen part of the trench engulf them from the waist down real quick, like whoosh. Seconds later, a fire hydrant breaks loose, flooding the street and the trench with so much water and mud that it smothered the two workers, Kelvin Maddox and Robbie Higgins. I knew that they were done. Being buried alive in a collapsed trench isn't a common way for a construction worker to die, but it might be the most avoidable.