ST. GEORGE — Firefighters responded to a teen who was stuck in the mud in the Virgin River in Bloomington Monday evening.

Station 8 firefighters in the SunRiver area received the call around 7:30 p.m. and were sent to a part of the Virgin River

north of where Brigham Road connects to the trail along the south side of the river.

What firefighters found was a teen boy whose legs were stuck in the muck beneath the surface and couldn’t get out.

St. George Fire Battalion Chief Tyler Talbot said he wasn’t sure how the boy got stuck in the river, whether he was “playing around” or got stuck in a patch of quicksand. Whatever the case, a handful of firefighters and Gold Cross Ambulance medics worked to dig and pull the boy out either as friends or family members watched.

St. George Fire Battalion Chief Tyler Talbot said he wasn’t sure how the boy got stuck in the river, whether he was “playing around” or got stuck in a patch of quicksand. Whatever the case, a handful of firefighters and Gold Cross Ambulance medics worked to dig and pull the boy out as friends are family members watched.

At one point, as the boy began to be pulled from the mud by one of the firefighters, he groaned and repeatedly said, “I can’t do it,” until he was set down again.

In the case of quicksand, which Talbot said was likely what they were dealing with, the Encyclopedia Britannica notes, “Physicists have calculated that the force required to extract your foot from quicksand at a rate of one centimeter per second is roughly equal to the force needed to lift a medium-sized car.”

Firefighters were eventually able to remove the boy from the river and carry him to the waiting ambulance.

Talbot said the boy complaining about being cold and having pain in his lower extremities. While he was checked by Gold Cross Ambulance paramedics at the scene, Tablot couldn’t confirm if he was taken to the hospital for further care.

The temperature of the Virgin River this time of year is usually between 50 and 60 degrees, according to the Washington County Water Conservancy District.