Clinton, N.Y. ― Two men who died in a manure tanker accident in Central New York were firefighters, farmers and good friends.
Nathan Doody, 33, of DeRuyter, and Tyler Memory, 29, of Tully, were found unconscious Thursday morning inside a manure tanker at Champion Farm in Clinton, police said. They were transported to the Wynn Hospital in Utica, where they were pronounced dead, police said.
The men worked for Dairy Support Services, a contracting company that plants, fertilizes and harvests for farms, said Scott Potter, the owner. Memory just started working there this spring and Doody started in 2015, Potter said.
Doody and Memory were volunteer firefighters. Doody was a member of the Cuyler department in Cortland County and Memory of the Tully department in Onondaga County.
For both men, volunteering with the fire department was a family affair.
“He married into the department,” Cuyler Fire Chief Adam Daley said about Doody. Doody’s wife and her family are volunteers for the same department, he said.
Doody is survived by his wife and two little girls, Daley said. He joined the department in 2014. Outside of volunteering, he worked as a truck driver, a skill that helped the fire department as well, Daley said.
“He was a great guy who was always willing to help,” Daley said.
He always enjoyed the fundraisers and parades the department was involved in because kids would be there, he said. Doody also enjoyed the pushball competitions between departments.
Memory’s family was involved in firefighting as well.
“You can’t start until you’re 14 but he started when he was four,” said Kim Memory, Tyler Memory’s mom. “He grew up in the fire department.”
Tyler Memory’s father was a Tully fire chief and as a young boy he would ride in the truck with his dad, she said.
Once he was old enough to be an official firefighter, he would be at every scene, she said. He’d get a call and hop on his bike, pedaling over to the station, often beating members who were driving over, she said.
It didn’t matter what the scene was, he was there. When there was bad weather, he would wait at the station to be ready to help, she said.
Tyler Memory also loved farming because it was a freedom for him, his mom said. As a boy he was bullied for having special needs, she said. In farming and firefighting, there is no judgment.
“He had three families; a home family, fire family, and farm family,” Kim Memory said.
Doody and Memory were friends, she said. They died doing their job.
“We’ll never know what happened,” she said. “The gasses were just too strong.”
Kim Memory said the hospital told them both men were overwhelmed by the gasses and that they both probably went into the tanker.
Manure can give off several gasses, including hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia, said Dan Neenan, director at the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety.
Hydrogen sulfide is the most dangerous gas. In high concentrations, causes unconsciousness, respiratory failure and death within minutes, Neenan said.
“Manure is dangerous 24/7, 365, but it becomes more dangerous when you agitate it,” Neenan said.
If Memory and Doody were moving manure into the tanker, then it has been agitated into a slurry, a mix of liquids and solids, he said. That’s when gases, like hydrogen sulfide, start to bubble up and potentially expel, he said.
Kim Memory called Doody and Memory’s death an “unforeseen and unusual accident.”
She said she has been struggling with her son’s death, at times finding it hard to breathe.
Community members have reached out about her son, sharing stories and compliments about him.
“Now I’m learning how many other people thought he was incredible,” she said. “Which, as a mom, is what you want to hear.”
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Staff writer Rylee Kirk covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, story idea, photo, question or comment? Reach her at 315-396-5961, on Twitter @kirk_rylee, or rkirk@syracuse.com.
Staff writer Fernando Alba covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Reach him at falba@syracuse.com.
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