Man rescued from neck-deep, near-freezing water after falling into cistern
A St. Clair County man is doing OK after firefighters rescued him from neck-deep water when he fell into an underground water tank Monday morning.
Around 11:30 a.m., rescue crews were called to the home on Winslow Road for reports of a man stuck in a cistern, French Village Fire Chief Al LaPointe said.
The man had been walking around the back yard of the house when he stood on a pile of bricks atop a slab of concrete, LaPointe said. The bricks and concrete were old, and gave way when the man stepped on it, plunging him into near-freezing water.
According to a KMOV 4 report, neighbors heard the man yelling for help and decided to call 911 when they couldn’t pull him out on their own.
LaPointe estimated the man was in the water for almost half an hour. According to a post on the fire department’s Facebook page, crews placed walk boards around the hole the man fell through and an extension ladder was lowered for the man to grab onto and extricate himself.
The man was treated and released for mild hypothermia, the Facebook post said.
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