Minneapolis Accident: 2-Year-Old Boy Falls Into Liquid Manure Pit, Rescued

A toddler who fell into a liquid manure pit was heroically rescued by the fire and rescue team on Monday (June 22) night in Minneapolis.

The boy, identified as 2-year-old Carter Douvier, was less than a week away from his second birthday when the shocking incident took place. Carter disappeared when his parents, Amanda and Jason Douvier, were working on their farm.

“It’s a feeling you don’t ever want to have,” Amanda told CBSN Minnesota.

Carter was immediately spotted trapped in the manure pit.

“It’s worse than thin ice,” Jason said. “You could see his little footprints that he walked across before he fell in.”

According to the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office, around 8 p.m. Monday, after receiving reports about the trapped child, dispatchers responded to the farm at the 22000 block of 300th Street in Farming Township, roughly 26 miles west of St. Cloud city.

Officials with the Albany Fire and Rescue located the boy trapped inside the pit. The boy’s legs and right arm was submerged about a foot from the edge of the manure pit. He was crying in fear as he was getting sucked in inch by inch.

The rescue team quickly tied a rope around one of their personnel, who rappelled down the pit and managed to pull the boy out without any injuries.

“We had a firefighter rappel down the wall and reach out there and grab the kid,” Albany Fire Department Chief Gary Winkels told local media.

“Parents did everything right,” he said. “It was fenced in. Kids are fast, they’re very fast.”

The parents lauded the quick response from the emergency responders.

“We’re just lucky they were there helping him, and we got to him in time,” Amanda said.

In another incident reported on Sunday (June 21) in Massachusetts, a 9-year-old boy with autism accidentally fell from the window of his grandmother’s ninth-floor-apartment. The boy was found unresponsive and was rushed to a nearby hospital. He later succumbed to his injuries. Brockton police and the Office of Plymouth County District Attorney’s office were investigating the case to find out if the fall was an accident.