Boy gets stuck between boulders for 9 hours while exploring school grounds

CONCORD, NH (AP) – Rescue workers have 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 pulled from the boulders in Windsor at about 3:15 a.m. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation and then released, according to Wediko School, where the boy attends.

“On Sunday evening, a supervised student exploring a rocky area on campus slipped between two boulders when sticks and debris gave way underneath,” the school, a residential treatment center for boys, said in a statement Monday.

“Despite the efforts of several staff members to free the student, they were unsuccessful and immediately called the local emergency services,” the statement said. “The rescue workers worked tirelessly throughout the night and were able to successfully rescue the student early in the morning.”

Firefighters received a call shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday. They found the boy “trapped in a crevasse” in a large boulder, Hillsborough Fire Chief Kenny Stafford said. They used ropes and lubricant to rescue the child, he said.

First responders from at least five other communities, as well as state police and the fisheries and game agency, assisted in the rescue operation in Windsor, in southern New Hampshire.

Jon Fosher, battalion chief of the Manchester Fire Service, said one reason emergency responders turned to the fire service was because Manchester had a heavy ambulance with a four-person crew.

He said moving the huge boulders to free the child was not an option. Rescue workers initially tried to break away part of the rock, but the child was still trapped, he said.

“We basically had to dig a tunnel under the boulder to get to the child's feet so we had something to push on from underneath,” he said.

Rescuers also used dish soap and placed friction-reducing towels on the boy's knees and back to make it easier to lift him up and out.

Fosher attributed the success to the teamwork of everyone involved in freeing the boy.

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