CONCORD, N.H. – Rescuers freed an 11-year-old boy who slipped between two boulders near his school and was trapped for more than nine hours, a New Hampshire fire chief said Monday.
The boy was pried out of the boulders in Windsor at about 3:15 a.m. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation and released, according to the Wediko School, where the boy is a student.
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“On Sunday evening, while under supervision, a student exploring a rocky area on campus slipped between two boulders when sticks and debris gave way beneath them,” the school, a residential treatment center for boys, said in a statement Monday.
“Despite multiple staff members' efforts to free the student, they were unsuccessful and promptly called local emergency rescue services,” the statement said. “Emergency responders worked tirelessly through the night, successfully rescuing the student in the early morning.”
Firefighters got a call to respond shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday, where they found the boy “lodged between the crevasse” in a large boulder, Hillsborough Fire Chief Kenny Stafford said. They used ropes and a lubricant to rescue the child, he said.
First responders from at least five other communities, as well as the state police and Fish and Game Department, assisted with the rescue in Windsor, in southern New Hampshire.
Manchester Fire Battalion Chief Jon Fosher said crews at the location reached out to the department in part because Manchester had a heavy rescue truck with a four-person crew.
He said trying to move the giant boulders to try to free the child wasn’t an option. Rescuers had initially attempted to break away some of the stone, but the child was still stuck, he said.
“We basically had to tunnel underneath the boulder to get access to the child’s feet which allowed us something to push on from the bottom,” he said.
Rescuers also used dish soap and applied friction-reducing sheets to the boy’s knees and back to help them lift him up and out.
Fosher credited teamwork from all those working to free the boy for the success.