GALLAGHER TOWNSHIP -- A fishing trip ended early when a deck came crashing down under the weight of a dozen men in Clinton County, sending several of them to the hospital.
For 27 years, 15 men from the Bloomsburg area have rented a house for a trout fishing weekend near Lock Haven. This year will probably go down as the most memorable.
The porch on the home on South Spring Brook Lane near Lock Haven collapsed early Saturday morning after nearly all of them were standing on the deck.
“Everybody got up, made some breakfast, and came out on the deck. Next thing you know, we're on the ground," said John Barratt of Bloomsburg.
“When we first got here, we pulled in, and they had multiple people laying here at the end of the driveway, so we started treating and triaging to see who was critical," Haneyville Fire Chief Bill McCoy said.
Barratt was one of the lucky ones. 13 of the 15 fishermen were injured in some way, with 5 being transported to the hospital.
“I figured on the way down this was going to hurt when we hit, but a couple of guys got some broken bones, but for the most part, everybody is going to be okay. [It] could've been worse," Barratt said.
All of the men are expected to be okay, especially after one of the them was able to get away to call for help.
"There's no cell reception up here, so I myself went out and got the emergency crews," Lonni Fornwald of Bloomsburg said.
100 first responders were there helping out throughout the morning.
Now it's up to the owner of the property and the men who rented the home to come to some sort of resolution. The fire chief and police believe there was no wrongdoing.
