- A man fell down a 20-foot
well inside aConnecticut home, after the floorboards gave way. - Authorities said the house was built in 1843 and the well had originally been outside the home, but was concealed by wooden flooring during a later renovation.
- The fire department said the man, Christopher Town, was treading water and clinging to the well's walls for roughly 25 minutes before rescuers arrived and pulled him out.
- The police department warned that sometimes older homes "have hazards that were not upgraded by current code."
A man moving furniture in a Connecticut home crashed through the floorboards and plunged more than 20 feet down a 19th-century well, sustaining minor injuries before being rescued by the local fire department.
"I hear a crack and I looked down, and the floor is giving way underneath me, and then I'm falling, and I'm falling," Christopher Town told WTIC-TV.
Town had been putting together a bed frame for his friend's son on the ground floor of the Guilford home. That friend, Diane Martin, told The New York Times she had warned about a soft spot in the floor and asked that the bed frame be placed overtop of it to prevent her 10-year-old son from being potentially injured.
But when Town tried to stand up after working on the frame, he immediately fell through the spot.
The Guilford Police Department said in a statement that the house was built in 1843, and the well had likely been outside the home at the time.
"There was a renovation and addition in 1981. At some point this well was covered with simple wood flooring and no subfloor or well cap," the police department said. "It is important to note that some of these older, historical homes may have hazards that were not upgraded by current code."
The fire department said in a statement that Town was treading water for nearly 25 minutes and clinging to the well's stone walls to stay above water.
Firefighters lowered a life preserver to Town and put together a pulley system.
"Once the system was set up, a Firefighter in a harness was lowered down, attached the victim to the Firefighters harness [sic], then both were lifted from the well," the fire department said.
The fire department described the well as a "cistern type well" more than 20 feet deep and five feet wide.
Town told The New Haven Register he was hypothermic by the time he was rescued, and had some bruises, but was discharged from a nearby hospital within hours.
"It was frightening, you know, particularly if you think about what could have happened," Town told the newspaper.
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