OT - Rescure from a Manure Pit

Scary.

Jefferson County firefighter saves coworker's life
Updated: 03/22/2009 08:25 PM
By: Katie Gibas

JEFERSON COUNTY, N.Y. -- Ernest Ross and Kevin Voll work together as volunteers for the Depauville Fire Department. They were fighting a large brush fire on Route 12 in Depauville last Friday when it quickly turned into a life and death situation for Ross.

"When we got there, noticed the flames were headed towards the barn and headed over to the barn to see if we could knock it down. And while cutting across the field, I fell into a manure pit," said Ross.

The manure patch is the size of a large swimming pool and is overgrown with grass and weeds, so it's almost impossible to tell it's there. Ross says the owner of the farm even told him he's lost a few cows in the pit over the years.

"I couldn't get out. I told him I couldn't feel bottom. I could feel the murk pulling me down in," said Ross. "I honestly thought I was going to die."

"At first, I tried to just pull him out, hand him my broom, so I could pull him out that way. That slipped out of his gloves, so I leaned over, grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him out of the pit," said Zoll.

Wouldn't taking a little time and cash to build a fence around the pit make more sense. Than loosing livestock and risking human life?

Thats the common sense thing to do, but some people are just "to cheap" to spend a couple hundred bucks on fence wire and posts. What do you think the lost livestock cost him? and he still didn't bother to change things.

There was am incident in Va a few years back where a guy went down in a pit that had a lid on the top. The fumes were too much for him, so the hired man went in after him. Till it was all said and done 5 people died....BE CAREFUL!

Sh!tty way to go......... Had an old guy here last year go into the pit to unclog the pickup hose and slipped through the ladder and got hung upside down and couldn't get up/drowned.

We had 4 members of the same family die a few years ago, they went in, one right after another trying to save each other. I think it was a dad, 2 sons and a cousin.

And some people wonder why it's so easy and common to make fun of farmers. Not after after hearing stories like that.
When in the Emergency service and from the Father-inlaw to this day. Recovering dead "want to be" rescuers is common.
Last I seen it was around three additonal dead rescuers for each intital victom who was already dead.

never had that problem when everybody raised pigs on dirt or cement floors!

Should have been fenced off, for obvious reasons, hard to understand why anyone would have such a hazard, same as an unfenced swimming pool.

The other things mentioned are confined spaces and they have their own set of rules, if anyone has confined spaces, tanks, vaults, silos, they need to take some safety training about confined spaces, they're no joke, I pulled a co-worker out of one that was deficient in oxygen, just before he succumbed, he was one hand hold away from staying in that concrete hole.

Do a search on confined spaces, safety and accidents, if you have any kind of confined space, and don't know the risks, safety protocol, you are at serious risk.

my 14 ft deep concrete pit is fenced with chain link and I run two strands of electic wire on the outside of that. in case my small kids think they should try climbing the fence they will get a good jolt. We tell them all the time to stay away but you turn your back for one second and that is all it takes.

Yep, I remember that, 4 generations lost from pit gas. Then there was the guy up in Falmouth that lost dairy owner and hired guy in the top of a harvestore about 6 years ago.

Reminds me of a story I heard out of WVA, old man fell through the floor of his outhouse, down into the pit, Started yellin fire, sure enough pretty soon, somebody heard him, fire department pulled him out, asked him why did you yell fire? He said if he yelled sh!t, nobody would've come help!

Was that the same guy who stood down in the crap for 3-4 days,until the post-man saw his mail piling up, so he went to investigate, and when the man heard the postman calling his name, he gave a weak shoutt, and the postman got him out!?

This accident is only about half an hour away from me--in the next county--and around here it's quite common to have schitt-pits without fences. Not saying it's a bright idea, but it's quite prevalent. I knew the head herdsman for one of the local BTO's a few years ago and was there when three guys from the local Army base thought his schitt-pit was a muddy field and tried to take their pickup mud-bogging in it! Next thing we know three VERY drunk, stoned (you could smell it even over a certain other odor that was rather noticeable....) and rather sheepish gentlemen begged the assistance of the herdsman to retrieve their truck, which was at a 45-degree angle and up to its back tires in concentrated cow plops. No harm done to anything but their wallets and egos, but another couple of feet further and they would have been completely out of sight, and if they had been knocked unconscious I dare say one lungful would have killed them deader than charity.