A construction worker who died when he slipped and fell into a 55-foot-deep well at a DeKalb County landfill has been identified as an Ohio man who was preparing for a career as a firefighter, officials said Sunday.

The fatal accident happened about 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Zackerie Knight, 20, of Christiansburg, Ohio, had just pulled off the shaft's cover at the Seminole Road Landfill when he fell in, DeKalb County fire Capt. Eric Jackson said.

Jackson said Knight was working to install pipes in the well to release methane gas. Poisonous gas at the bottom of the shaft hampered efforts to reach the man. Rescuers worked more than 10 hours to recover the body.

Knight worked at the landfill as a subcontractor for Quality Drilling, but Jackson said he was in training to be a firefighter back home.

"He was a probationary firefighter who was preparing to go to firefighting school in Ohio," Jackson said. "His dad is a lieutenant and his mother is an EMT with the Christiansburg Fire Department."

Jackson said investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were reviewing the fatality.