This incredible picture and the story of the workers who were excavating the foundation for a warehouse in Brooklyn, who nearly an hour yesterday trapped beneath tons of debris from the New York Times.

Emergency workers scrambled to free Manuel Vergara, 33. He and his brother were shaken but not seriously hurt. The company in charge of the project, in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, received three violations.

In a heart-thumping scene that drew nearly 100 rescue workers and scores of curious onlookers, the men were painstakingly extricated with help from a powerful vacuum, but largely by men like Neil Malone, a firefighter and paramedic who used his bare hands to keep dirt and rocks away from the face of one of the men.

The buried men, who are brothers, were shaken and coated in dust but not seriously hurt, the authorities said. Five firefighters also received minor injuries during the rescue effort, they said. The two men, Manuel Vergara, 33, and Herberto Vergara, 27, of Sunset Park, were working at the bottom of an eight-foot-deep trench on 11th Street in the Gowanus section when it suddenly caved in around 10:30 a.m., witnesses and fire officials said.

When John Connolly, the construction site supervisor, got to the scene a few minutes later, he said Herberto was buried up to his chin and Manuel was completely covered by debris.

The first rescue workers used garden tools to clear space around Manuel’s face. Later, a powerful vacuum used by Con Edison sucked out rocks and dirt. A crane lifted portions of a collapsed chimney and paramedics hooked up intravenous drips while the men were still partly buried.