(Photo by Christopher Shadrock)

TEMPLE (February 18, 2013)—Temple firefighters rescued a highway worker who fell into a 20-foot-deep hole Monday morning at a construction site near Loop 363 and Pegasus Road.

The worker was injured, but conscious.

Rescue team members were lowered to administer treatment while other firefighters prepared a rigging with which to extricate him, Temple Fire & Rescue spokesman Thomas Pechal said.

A vertical corrugated pipe reinforced the hole, which was about 12 feet in diameter.

The worker was climbing down a ladder inside the hole when he slipped and fell to the bottom Monday morning, Pechal said.

A litter was suspended on a cable attached to a fire truck’s ladder and was lowered into the hole in order to bring the man out.

He suffered only minor injuries, Pechal said.