Cape Girardeau firefighters rescue man from muddy hole

Firefighters in Cape Girardeau spent nearly an hour Sunday at 1415 Independence St. extricating an 80-year-old man who was trapped in waist-high mud.

The accident occurred around 1:30 p.m. Battalion chief Fred Vincel said a crew was preparing to pour concrete on a driveway and had been having problems with water filling a hole at the site. The man went to look in the hole, Vincel said, and slipped into it.

"With the amount of water in the hole, it was very loose mud," Vincel said.

Vincel added that the scenario isn't unusual to firefighters, so they were prepared. The crew used a harness attached to an engine's ladder to pull the man out of the mud.

He was taken to an ambulance after the incident and around 5 p.m., Vincel said he had heard the man was doing well.

Pertinent address:

1400 block of Independence Street, Cape Girardeau, MO