NEWYORK –
Authorities say five mischievous boys had to be rescued after going through a stormwater tunnel in New York City and getting lost.
In the audio released by the fire department, 911 dispatchers work to pinpoint the boys’ exact locations and then ask them to scream when rescuers are close enough to hear.
“Now you can shout as loud as you can,” said one dispatcher. “They want you to scream and scream.”
Five boys, ages 11 and 12, crawled into a storm drain on Staten Island around 6 p.m. Tuesday, fire department officials said at a news conference Wednesday.
The boys walked about a quarter of a mile and then called 911 when they couldn’t find their way back, officials said.
“We were stuck in the sewer,” one of the boys says in the recording. “Where are you stuck?” a coordinator responds.
The second dispatcher said he was familiar with the area and was trying to pinpoint the boys’ locations. “After you go down, is the drain left, right, straight – where is it?” asked the moderator. “I need you to guide me.”
When the sirens could be heard, the dispatcher told the boys to scream. At first, the boys feared that rescuers would not stop.
“Looks like they passed us,” said one boy.
The dispatcher assured the boys, “They’re not going anywhere, we’ll get you out of there.”
Just then, an emergency responder can be heard saying, “We could have caught the kids by now,” and then, “We got all five kids out of the sewers.” .”
Firefighters said the boys had been in the tunnel for about an hour. The boys and a firefighter were taken to hospital for evaluation, but no one was seriously injured, officials said.
FDNY Chief John Hodgens told reporters: “It was surprising that the phone worked in the tunnel. “That was a key ingredient in how we found them.”
