Plympton, Massachusetts, Fire Chief Warren Borsari says a man who fell into a residential septic tank Tuesday afternoon, is lucky to be alive.
The Plymouth County Technical Rescue Team and the Duxbury Fire Dept tweeted out photos of the dramatic rescue.
The man, from Plympton, was harnessed and removed from the septic tank by rescuers at a home along Forest Street.
Crews got to the scene just before 3 p.m.
"Upon arrival, the first units saw a man in the septic tank about a foot and a half below the surface standing in liquid up to his waste," Fire Chief Borsari said.
First the Chief says they tried to lasso him with a rope, but they couldn't get him out safely, so the Plympton Chief called in the Plymouth County Techincal Rescue Team.
"He had been doing a small repair on his own. He was one of the people who lived in the residence, they were trying to do a repair for themselves and he was standing on a step ladder inside of the tank and the step ladder broke and he fell right into it," said Borsari.
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After the man was rescued, the broken ladder was visible in the hole.
The Chief says the man was shaken but calls him "lucky" to only have minor scrapes.
"He was very scared, absolutely, and he could have been intoxicated also, but because he was in compromised atmosphere with methane gas and lack of oxygen it could have been all of the above, that was causing him problems."
The Chief says he notified the Board of Health.
The man was transported to the hospital for minor injuries according to the Chief.
