Windsor mudflats snare 8-year-old boy and one of his rescuers

An eight-year-old boy and a man are safe following an unusual rescue Monday evening after they became stuck in mud on a lake in Windsor, N.S.

The boy got stuck after venturing out onto the mudflats of Lake Pisiquid, and a man in the area who tried to help ended up in the same situation.

"The young fella was down roughly to his waist and the other gentleman was down probably mid-thigh, I'd say and he was sort of sitting on the mud," Jamie Juteau, the deputy chief of the Windsor Fire Department, told CBC's Maritime Noon. 

"But they were still sinking down."

The pair were spotted by a construction worker nearby. Juteau said some of the workers had the "presence of mind" to pull plywood from their job site and throw it out onto the mud, providing something stable for the pair as they awaited rescue. 

Once rescue crews arrived, they donned their ice rescue floatation suits and helped extract the boy and the man.

"It's very much like an ice rescue when somebody goes through the ice and everybody tries to run out there to help them, they mean well but then they fall through the ice as well. Same concept applies," Juteau said. 

'The more you move the more you sink'

Juteau said it's easy to become stuck in the mud if you are not familiar with the area.

"Same idea, as quicksand — the more you move the more you sink," he said. "Unless you're familiar with the area, you're from here, and are familiar with that, you can get into some pretty big trouble pretty quick." 

In order to prevent the pair's joints from being tugged and pulled, rescuers used shovels to dig around the boy and man. 

"It'll hold you like concrete," Juteau said of the mud. 

'The young fella was pretty upset'

Once the two were mostly clear of the toughest mud, rescuers were able to pull them onto the plywood and get them off the mudflats. The pair were unharmed.

"The young fella was pretty upset, granted, because he'd never experienced such a thing before," said Juteau.

He said if those at the scene hadn't moved quickly and called 911, it could have been far worse.

"Had that been a little later in the evening or somebody didn't notice that, that could have been a whole other story," said Juteau.