Wife: NJ worker's acid vat rescue was team effort

Updated 5:35 p.m. ET

(CBS/AP) CLIFTON, N.J. - The wife of a New Jersey roofer who helped save a co-worker who had fallen 40 feet into a vat of acid says her husband is doing fine and is downplaying his role in the rescue.

Rob Nuckols' wife, Karen, says he was one of four or five workers who pulled colleague Martin Davis out of the nitric acid solution Monday morning at Swepco Tube LLC in Clifton.

Rescue workers cut Davis out of his clothes and sprayed him with water to limit burns.

N.J. man jumps into vat of acid to save coworker

A fire official had said Monday that Nuckols suffered burns when he jumped into the acid vat to help rescue Davis.

On Monday, Fire Chief Vince Colavitti said of Nuckols to CBS radio station 1010 WINS: "His exact words were, 'I had to get him out.' He took his life and put it in harm's way to save a co-worker and that speaks a lot for a person." But Nuckols' wife says he never jumped in.

Davis had fallen through a roof into the vat. His family says he was in critical condition. No update was available Tuesday morning.

Karen Nuckols' says her husband is doing well and doesn't want to be interviewed.