CRESSON, Texas—A worker fell 40 feet into a narrow storage hole at a natural gas drilling site Tuesday and was trapped for three hours before being rescued, officials said.

The man was hospitalized with scrapes and bruises and was expected to be held overnight at a hospital, said Julie Wilson, a spokeswoman for Chesapeake Energy Corp., manager of the site.

The site was being prepared for the drilling of a well when the man fell into a hole designed to store pipes, Wilson said.

At ground level, the hole is about 3 feet wide and narrows as it descends to about 75 feet, Wilson said. The man lodged in the hole about 40 feet down, she said.

The man was an employee of Koda Rathole, an oil field services company, Wilson said. A company official said the incident was being investigated.

Cpl. Pam Jetsel said the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department received an emergency call about 8 a.m. The man was pulled from the hole about 11 a.m.

Five area fire departments and a medical helicopter responded to the scene near Cresson, about 25 miles south of Fort Worth, said Cpl. Pam Jetsel of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department.

“Our thanks go out to the variety of rescue crews who came and very promptly responded and rescued this man,” Wilson said.