Man rescued from sewer in NH

MANCHESTER, NH (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A man was rescued from a sewer in Manchester, New Hampshire Friday.

One firefighter called it one of the most unusual rescues he's ever performed. A young man got stuck in a storm drain and was lucky to catch the attention of two people passing by.

District Chief Al Poulin said, "An older couple actually saw the fingers come through the storm drain. They couldn't believe what they saw."

When firefighters arrived a few minutes later, they couldn't believe what they saw. The man was 10 feet down and partially submerged in chilly water.

He was only able to get his fingers through the grates by standing in an inlet pipe, but he had no feeling in his feet.

Firefighters think it's likely he crawled through an open pipe nearby, perhaps behind the Home Depot, and that is how he got stuck.

Getting him out involved popping an adjacent drain cover, a piece of metal weighing 225 pounds. A 24-inch pipe connected the two openings and the young man crawled through it.

Poulin said, "And then we lowered a ladder down to him and he was able to come up and we assisted him and he popped right up out of there and he was cold."

He was cold, but happy to be alive. He was taken to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia.

Cox Media Group