ST. LOUIS — A man is recovering in the hospital after being stuck waist-deep in a mud pit for hours on Thursday morning.
The man was walking through an abandoned lot on his way to work around 6 a.m. according to North County Fire Rescue. Before he could make it to a parking lot, he stepped into a muddy trench and became trapped. He’s taken this path before but due to the heavy rain, the ground was much softer.
The rescue happened in Glasgow Village. Rain was falling and temperatures were near freezing.
"He was in there probably about 3 hours before help arrived,” Chief Keith Goldstein, North County Fire Rescue said. “He was calling for help, someone heard him screaming and that's when they called county police.”
The call came in at 9 a.m. It took crews another hour to dig him out.
“He was stuck in mud from his waist on down,” Goldstein said. “It’s a tragedy that he was stuck. I'm just glad it wasn't his upper extremities that were confined into that mud."
The 30-year-old man was taken to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia and lower body injuries. He is expected to be ok.
Fire officials said it appears some work was being done in the area recently. There was a backfilled trench where the man was stuck.
