Two off-duty New York volunteer firefighters die after falling into manure on farm in northern New York

US News

From Chris Nesi

Two off-duty volunteer firefighters, one of whom was trying to rescue the other, died when they fell into a manure truck on a cattle ranch in upstate New York, police said Friday.

Nathan Doody, 33, of DeRuyter, and Tyler Memory, 29, of Tully, were at work when they lost consciousness and fell into the tanker after being overcome by the toxic fumes rising from inside.

According to police, one of the men was attempting to “rescue a piece of equipment that had fallen into the tanker” (located at Champion Farms in Clinton) but lost consciousness and fell in.

When the other man tried to rescue the first, he too passed out and fell into the tanker, WKTV reported.

Farm staff found the unconscious men in the tanker truck and called 911. Paramedics took the men to a local hospital, where they were pronounced dead.

It was not immediately clear which of the men fell first.

Memory, a third-generation firefighter, was with the Tully Joint Fire Department for 15 years, joining at age 14, Assistant Fire Chief Joe Nemier told LocalSyr.com.

Doody was a volunteer with the Cuyler Fire Department in Cortland County ten years ago.

Nemier, who knew both men, said they worked as slurry tanker drivers.

Champion Farms is a 10th generation beef and dairy farm that opened in the early 1800s and is located on 3,500 scenic acres approximately 250 miles northwest of Manhattan.

According to the National Agricultural Safety Database, manure fumes have been shown to produce toxic gases that, in sufficiently high concentrations, can be fatal to humans and livestock.

The most dangerous is hydrogen sulphide, which can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness and loss of consciousness.

In sufficiently high concentrations, the hydrogen sulphide produced by manure pits can kill a person with just one or two breaths.

Three Ohio brothers died in 2021 after passing out due to fumes while working to repair a pump in a manure pit on the family farm.