DELHI TOWNSHIP, Oh. -- Newly released pictures give us an inside look into the tight conditions firefighters had to deal with in order to free a Delhi man from a septic tank.
A picture taken by a volunteer Delhi firefighter shows firefighters working in a tight space to free 80-year-old Paul Paff.
This hole is less than six feet wide.
"You can see the depth and how far the rescuers head is below ground level," said Chief Bill Zoz of Delhi Fire Department.
On Tuesday afternoon, Paff fell into an abandoned septic tank located in the backyard of his home on Pontius Drive.
He was trapped waist high in sludge.
A neighbor's dog heard Paff's cries for help and got his owner's attention
Firefighters with Delhi's Technical Rescue Team and USAR, the Urban Search and Rescue Team worked to free him.
They needed to make sure they weren't going to add to the problem.
"Because its an old type of system, some of the concrete had deteriorated so there was mud and such for the walls so we had to shore up the walls with big 2 by 12 pieces of lumber so we didn't get additional cave ins," said Zoz.
A vacuum truck was brought in to remove the liquid waste.
Firefighters then put up a tripod to lower a firefighter to put a harness on the senior citizen to free him.
"A couple of guys know him and said he is a very very strong willed man and it showed in his fight and tenacity and talking to the rescuers they got conversation out of him while they were rescuing him," said Zoz.
