Four workers rescued from giant vat of fish feces on Massachusetts farm

Rescuers cut through a filtration tank filled with dense fish feces to reach four workers who fell into the sludgy dung Friday while cleaning the 18-foot tank at a western Massachusetts farm.

The workers became trapped for 45 minutes after a bracket holding a plastic filtration pad collapsed as they stood on it to clean the fiberglass tank at the Australis Aquaculture fish farm, said Capt. David Dion of the Turners Falls Fire Department and the fish farm's manager Josh Goldman.

One of the farmhands was submerged beneath what Dion described as a sand-and-feces mix, while the other three had their heads above the sludge, he said.

Goldman said the workers and the pad, which collects bacteria created by fish urine and feces, like some household aquarium filters, fell to the bottom of the tank.

"Everybody's present and accounted for," Goldman said. "A couple of the guys even came back to say hi."

The farm raises barramundi, a new fish farmed as a replacement for grouper, according to the Web site for Australis Aquaculture, an Australia-based company.

Dion said rescue workers cut a hole in the side of the tank and then slashed through the feces mix until they were able to pull out the workers, Dion said.

"It was very slimy and it was heavy," he said. "Never seen anything like it in my life."

The worker who became submerged in the feces was airlifted to Bay State Medical Center in Springfield, but was talking with paramedics and did not appear to have life-threatening injuries, Dion said. The other three were taken by ambulance to a local hospital with minor injuries.