tonight, one rescuer's story from nbc's janet shamlian. >> reporter: it is what these teams train forwhat they do. but little could have prepared anyone for the call that came 100 days ago. >> i just thought it was surreal. you don't ever expect to see. >> reporter: rescue swimmer kirk peterson was aboard the first helicopter sent to the scene. on the way, reports grew more dire by the minute. >> started progressing to rig explosion, rig on fire, 106 people in the water with injuries. it kept growing and growing. >> reporter: as they circled the blazing "deepwater horizon," it was immediately apparent they were flying into a full blown catastrophe. with the chopper running low on fuel, the 39-year-old father of two was hoisted onto the nearby supply ship that had now become, by necessity, a hospital. hundreds of people were treated that night in the dark in what became a makeshift triage. some of the injuries were critical. 17 rig workers needed urgent care. in the black of night lit only by the burning rig beside them, peterson loaded survivors into rescue baskets that were then hois

. >> reporter: i'm janet shamlian in baritaria bay. officials said it would be fixed within a day but an abandoned well hit by a tug boat has been spewing a toxic mix of oil and natural gas into the gulf for almost three days, and the coast guard said it could be 12 before it's finally capped. >> it's spewing 30 barrels of oil a day into the area that was already impacted by the bp oil well spill. it's not good news for us. >> reporter: what began as a small leak now blankets six square miles as spools of containment boom rage a david and goliath battle to protect estuaries nearby. >> i have seen barges hit well heads but i have never seen one spurt like that. >> reporter: captain james peters says they are sometimes marked with a sign and small light or sometimes not at all, making them a dangerous obstacle. the gulf waters are a minefield of abandoned oil and gas wells that, for the most part, go unchecked to see if they are leaking. >> it's amazing. there wouldn't be enough people in louisiana to check them every day. there are more

. >> reporter: it's not just bp's oil they have to clean up, nbc's janet shamlian is there. >> as if they needed more trouble in these waters, today a tugboat hit a well head. you can see it and hear it, it's spewing a toxic mix into the sensitive coastal estuaries around here. areas that have already been hit from oil from the deepwater horizon. booms are out on the water, and a well team has been hired to put it out. the gulf is polluted by yet another spill. >> the fisheries is our business. >> reporter: mike has worked these waters for 29 years. for those who think the oil is gone, he says, think again. >> it just doesn't disappear. it's down below, the currents are working it. depending on the currents and wave action, it's going to pop up. i don't know how long it's going to do that, but it's going to be quite some time. >> reporter: as for the $32 billion bp has set aside for the cleanup, they expect to get a tax credit on that money, saving some $10 billion on its u.s. tax bill. brian? >> hard to believe they had another well accident down there today. anne thompson in venice