A 4-year-old Texas boy is recovering at the hospital after he was rescued from a well in what’s being called a Christmas miracle. The little boy fell into a 44-foot deep well at a ranch in Garceno, and the rescue was captured on film (video posted below).
A Careful Rescue Mission
When fire and emergency crews responded, they discovered that the pit where the boy fell was only 8-10 inches in diameter. Because of this, first responders had to take extra care and bring in special equipment to safely free the boy from the pit.
It took crews six hours to free the boy from the tight space. It’s unclear how he fell in.
“Through prayers and actions from everyone, a little boy lives today,” Sheriff Rene Fuentes told KVUE television.
Robert Alvarez, the assistant fire chief of the Mission Fire Department, told USA TODAY that a team trained in trench rescue was called to help. He says the crew had to dig parallel to the boy into another hole in the ground. As they got deep enough, they started removing dirt from the exterior wall of the hole where the boy was trapped.
Special equipment was needed during the rescue effort. A vector truck with a vacuum system on it was one tool first responders used to take piles of dirt out to free the boy. Each step in the effort needed to be done carefully.
“Any vibration, any wrong strike of a shovel, could cause more soil to fall into the hole where the victim was,” Alvarez told KVEO in a separate interview.
He added that everyone pitched in to make this rescue effort a success.
“You saw a sheriff’s officer with a shovel helping us move soil…whatever needed to be done,” Alvarez said.
A Christmas Miracle
After six long hours, the boy was freed. The moment where the boy was pulled from the well was captured on video. It has gripped the hearts of many who have seen it, applauding crews for getting the boy out safely.
Alvarez said, “The biggest thing that we were trying to make sure was that the operation was done safely.”
In the end, it was. The boy was alert and communicating with first responders when he was rescued. He was airlifted to an area hospital for tests and X-rays. He was last listed in stable condition.
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