Hunter Sinks In Mud That Acted Like Quicksand
LOVELAND, Colo. (CBS4) - A teenage hunter is thanking rescue crews for plucking him out of some paralyzing mud in Loveland. Rescuers say it was like quicksand.
The teen was trying to retrieve a duck he had shot from Simpson Ponds State Wildlife Area on Tuesday.
He got stuck about 15 feet from the shore and called 911 on his cellphone.
The following are two excerpts from the transcript of the tense emergency call:
Dispatcher: 911, what is your emergency?
Caller: I'm at the Simpson Lake State Wildlife Area and I'm stuck in quicksand and every time I take a step I go farther down.
Dispatcher: How much of you is stuck?
Caller: I started at like knee-deep and I'm already all the way up to the bottom of my chest.
Loveland Fire & Rescue battalion chief Rick Davis said the "quicksand" was actually just soft mud at the bottom of the pond.
"It's just really soft and it just sucks them in. And it can feel like you're going to continue to go in and the more that they work, the more they go in," Davis said.
Crews used a rope to pull the teen to safety and he wound up being unharmed.
Emergency crews said they would like to remind people to be careful in wet, marshy or boggy areas.
Davis said the Simpson Ponds area was affected by the floods of September 2013. He said it's possible some of the new silt and sand deposits that are present may have played a role in the incident.
