Five boys from Staten Island, New York now have an amazing story to tell for the rest of their lives. With school out for summer, the kids were playing in Clove Lakes Park when they discovered the entrance to a tunnel. Their curiosity must have gotten the best of them, because they dropped their backpacks at the entrance and decided to go for it!
One by one, they squeezed their way into the narrow cement tunnel and into the maze of sewer lines under the city. Inside, the tunnel was dark and damp. What started as a 40-inch diameter tunnel soon diminished to 30-inches in diameter, forcing them to crawl on their knees. Only one boy had a cell phone, which they used for light until they made a terrifying realization: they were lost.
Fire alarm dispatcher Marlind Haxhialiu was on duty when the boys’ frantic 911 call came in. He asked a series of questions to help rescuers narrow down the boys’ location. Members of the New York City Fire Department scrambled to find them, discovering their discarded backpacks and trying to retrace their steps. The FDNY later released audio footage of the exchange.
“Once you went down, were the sewers, left, right, straight, where was it? I need you to guide me,” Marlind urged them.
With a tentative map in place, members of the FDNY opened manhole covers over the path they believed the children followed. The dispatcher asked the boys to shout when help was nearby, and the noise of their cries helped rescuers locate them. One firefighter donned breathing equipment and tied a rope around his waist to enter the narrow tunnel.
“It was a tight space. The member had to crouch down and then crawl,” FDNY Lt. John Drew stated.
“They were crawling on their knees for about an hour,” said firefighter John Loennecker. “It was dark down there. They had one cell phone light, and that was it.”
The kids are all okay, and something tells us they won’t be quite as curious about their city’s tunnels in the future! It’s great to know there are heroes like these who will climb into incredibly tight spaces to save us!
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