A pair of off-duty New York firefighters tragically died on Thursday after one of them fell into a manure tanker on a cattle farm and the other attempted to rescue him.

Tyler Memory, 29, of Tully, andNathan Doody, 33, of DeRuyter, were performing their day jobs as drivers for manure trucks at Champion Farms when they were overpowered by the hazardous fumes issuing from the tanker.

According to authorities, one of the off-duty firemen had endeavored to retrieve 'a piece of equipment that had fallen into the tanker' before passing out and collapsing inside.

Although it isn't yet clear who initially fell into the tanker, investigators said that the other man tried to rescue his colleague, but then he also fell unconscious and tumbled in.