06/13/2026
๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ ๐
๐ข๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ญ๐ก ๐๐ง๐ง๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐๐ง ๐
๐ข๐ซ๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐๐
June 13th, 1981, Bausman Firefighter Jeffrey W. Jones died in the line of duty 45 years ago. Firefighter Jones, along with St. Josephโs Hospital paramedics Bruce Ditlow and Kevin Weatherlow from Medic 6-13, gave their lives attempting the rescue of a child who fell
into an abandoned septic tank on Hamilton Road in Lancaster Township. The incident gained national attention and brought forth awareness of the dangers of rescues in confined spaces. Many of our current members were not around when this incident occurred. But that doesnโt stop us from remembering the sacrifice that Jeff made for our community. We shall never forget his actions that day. We will also continue to make sure his passing serves as a tool for us to use to be better firefighters.
Rescuers entered an abandoned septic tank one by one in an effort to rescue 8-year-old Benjamin Walker. The boy was saved, but three who entered the tank, one a teenager, died, suffocated by carbon dioxide gas.
The tragedy started at about 4:15 PM when Dr. Walker, a urologist at St. Joseph Hospital, discovered that his 8-year-old boy was trapped in the septic tank, which is in the familyโs front driveway and had been unused for a number of years, and called the St. Joseph Hospital paramedics.
The boy, who was mowing the lawn, was dumping grass clippings down a 14-inch diameter pipe that leads to the septic tank when a grass catcher slipped out of his hands and fell into the tank. The family had commonly used the tank to dispose of grass and shrub clippings.
The boy then got a ladder, dropped it into the septic tank, and then climbed down in an attempt to find the grass catcher. The boy was overcome by the gas and unable to climb out. He was then discovered by his father.
The father could not fit into the tank called St. Josephโs Hospital, which sent an ambulance to the scene.
When the St. Joseph rescue unit first arrived, they were unaware that the septic tank was filled with the noxious gas.
๐๐ฐ๐จ ๐๐๐๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ง๐ค
Chris Oberly, the chief of the Wheatland Fire Company, said when he arrived at the scene, Weatherlow was ready to descend into the septic tank after his close friend. The Wheatland Fire Company was in charge of the rescue attempt.
Oberly said he insisted that Weatherlow wear an SCBA before entering the tank. A lifeline was also attached to the paramedic.
Because of the narrowness of the opening, rescuers entering the hole had to be lowered into it before the SCBA could be handed down to them. After the narrow, 4-foot-long passageway, the tank itself opened up, 6 to 8 feet deep and large enough for a man to walk around in.
Weatherlow was able to attach a lifeline to the boy, who was successfully pulled from the tank and rushed to St. Joseph Hospital, before being transferred to the Hershey Medical Center. He had been in the hall for about 25 minutes.
โโIt was a routine call, a child trapped in a sewer with no serious injuries,โโ said Ken Culton, a medic on the emergency squad at St. Josephโs Hospital, where the boyโs father, John, is a urologist. โโThen, after we got there, it became very emotional. It moved from chaos to mayhem to hysteria. At the end, a lot of us were crying.โโ
Mr. Culton said that a fellow medic, Bruce Ditlow, 24 years old, was the first to enter the tank. โโHe said, โItโs a little stuffy in here,โ โโ Mr. Culton said. โโAnd thatโs the last thing he ever said.โโ
A second medic, Kevin Weatherlow, 22, was above ground. โโWeatherlow and Ditlow went to high school together,โโ Mr. Culton said. โโ โโBruce had served as Kevinโs best man at his wedding. Kevin freaked out when he realized Bruce was down there unconscious.โโ
Mr. Weatherlow entered the tank with an air pack, tied a rope around the boy, and then apparently took off the mask to give it to his friend, Mr. Culton said. He was overcome almost instantly; rescuers found the mask a few feet from his face.
8-year-old Walker, who by then had been in the tank 25 minutes, was pulled to safety and taken to St. Josephโs hospital. Two volunteer firefighters next crawled down the pipe to rescue the medics. Jeff Jones, 18, of the Bausman Fire Company, collapsed and later died. His comrade, Mark Rhinier, escaped.
Firefighters began pumping air into the tank, and the police and volunteers used sledgehammers to smash through the tankโs foot-thick wall.
Mr. Jones, Mr. Weatherlow, and Mr. Ditlow were brought out, but they had been in the tank for as long as 45 minutes, and efforts to revive them failed. Rescue workers said they apparently fell into areas where the carbon dioxide was more concentrated than where the child fell.
Walker was transferred to the intensive care unit of Hershey Medical Center in critical condition.
After workers finally crashed through the concrete and stone wall of the septic tank and removed Ditlow and Jones from the hole shortly after 6 PM, medical personnel made efforts to revive them. They were unsuccessful, and both were pronounced dead at the hospital.
Bausman Firefighter Jeffrey W. Jones' name appears on the 1981 memorial plaque at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, MD. Flowers are placed at his resting place in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Bausman next to the former LTFD fire station by Chief Comfort each year.
