CLAYTON (AP) -- A volunteer firefighter battling a grass fire in northern New York fell into a manure pit and was rescued from possible drowning.
Authorities say Depauville Fire Department recruit Kevin Zoll saved the six-year veteran Ernest Ross on Friday at a farm on Route 12 in Clayton. Ross was cutting across a field toward a building where flames were spreading when he fell into an unmarked manure pit. Ross tells the Watertown Daily Times it was covered with straw and looked like the field.
Zoll crawled to the edge of the pit, reached out with a broom handle and pulled Ross in. Ross says that saved his life, than in a few minutes he would have been submerged. Dry and windy conditions led to multiple calls about grass fires in the north country again Saturday.
(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
