GUILFORD, Conn. — All was not well for a Connecticut man who helped move a friend into a vintage home Sunday.

As Christopher Town and his wife were helping out at the Guilford home, the floor collapsed, sending the man hurtling at least 20 feet into a well that had been covered with a wood floor, WVIT reported.

“So,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,” Town told WTIC-TV. “And I’m thinking, ‘How the hell am I gonna get out of here?‘”

The well was uncapped, and Town fell into 7 feet of water, the television station reported. There was no subflooring installed beneath the home, which was built in 1843. According to police, the well was likely located outside the home when it was built, CNN reported. In 1981, an addition and some renovations were done to the home and the well was covered up, police said.

Fortunately for Town, his wife saw what happened and called 911.

“I think I am still in shock,” Angela Town told WVIT. “Surreal. I mean he was standing in front of me and he was gone.”

The Guilford Fire Department arrived within minutes and was able to give Town a life jacket, the television station reported. Town said he treaded water, trying to stay afloat. Firefighters used a rope and fitted Town with a harness, eventually pulling him out of the 5-foot wide well.

“They quickly lowered a life jacket, a life safety rope, so that the gentleman could stay secured and not go under if you had anything medically going wrong,” Assistant Fire Chief Michael Shove, of the Guilford Fire Department, told WTIC.

For Town, all’s well that ends well.

“When you are in a situation like that when you don’t have control, it is good to know that the other people who are there in fact have control and know what they are doing,” Town told WVIT. “They saved my life.”

Cox Media Group