Worker spends 90 minutes stuck in mud up to waist


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GREENLAND, N.H. (AP) — Fire officials say a fuel delivery worker in New Hampshire sank in soggy ground up to his waist and it took nearly 90 minutes to pull him back out.

Greenland Deputy Fire Chief Myrick Bunker tells the Portsmouth Herald (http://bit.ly/1J89FLs ) that John Hanscom was filling a propane tank Wednesday when he dropped into the heavily saturated ground. He was able to call his boss who got rescuers to the scene.

Up to 10 firefighters, using shovels and perched on plywood slabs, worked for nearly 90 minutes trying to free Hanscom from the muck that was 3 feet deep. Bunker says every time a shovel load came out, another one slithered back in.

Eventually an excavator helped speed the rescue.

Hanscom was not injured.

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