Rescue workers were called to 380 Alva Oakley Rd. shortly after midnight Saturday by family members of Donald Kirk Oakley, 55, of Alva Oakley Road after they found Oakley in the well a short time earlier.

According to Person County Sheriff’s Deputy W.H. Whitfield, Oakley told rescuers he “slipped and fell in the well.”

Oakley had reportedly been missing since about 5 p.m. Friday.

“The family really appreciates the efforts of everyone who helped,” Whitfield said. “Everyone from Ceffo, Roxboro Fire Department, Person County Rescue Squad, they were all very professional and did a great job.”

The well was estimated at 70 feet deep and had four feet of water in it. Oakley was removed from the well within approximately two hours after rescue workers arrived on the scene. He was taken by medical helicopter to Duke University Medical Center where he was treated for “minor injuries — scrapes on his elbows and knees,” Whitfield said.

Oakley remained at Duke as of Tuesday.

Ceffo Volunteer Fire Department Chief Blake Whitt said the rescue operation “overall, went very well. It was a real good rescue effort.”

Ceffo firefighters arrived on the scene, according to Whitt, and called in other agencies to aid, including the Roxboro Fire Department’s Tactical Rescue Team. >>

Lance Minks, 20, a member of the Tactical Rescue Team, was lowered into the well to help extract Oakley.

“[Oakley] was conscious, but he was not fully aware,” Minks said. “His strength seemed to be going. I went down and attempted to put a harness on him, but there wasn’t enough room,” in the well, which has a diameter of about three feet.

“I raised his arms and put wristlets on them and was able to hook him to my harness and give the command to pull us out,” Minks said.

Roxboro Fire Department Lt. Chad Pergerson said that once Minks went into the well, the operation was completed in “probably about 30 minutes.”

Minks said that Oakley was in water, which reached “chest level.”

“The whole operation went like clockwork,” Pergerson said, adding that the Tactical Rescue Team had been training for such events for “about two years.

“We train on a quarterly basis,” Pergerson added. “It takes somewhere between 200 and 300 hours of training to become certified.”

The equipment for the Tactical Rescue Team was purchased, courtesy of a host of sponsors, nearly six years ago, according to Roxboro Fire Chief Kenneth Torain. The cost of the equipment was “somewhere around “$70,000 or $75,000,” he added.

The equipment, however, paid for itself Saturday morning, Minks noted.

“Anytime you save a life, it is worth it,” Minks said.

The Person County Rescue Squad and Person County EMS assisted the Ceffo VFD and Roxboro Fire Department in the rescue.