March 23, 2023 “I saw my mom’s friend that works on the ambulance, Victoria, and then I knew I was going to be in trouble,” Declan Gannon said.
Source Firehouse.com News
Technical rescue personnel from the FDNY conducted a confined space operation to rescue five boys who got stuck in the Staten Island sewer system.
CBS relayed some of the boy’s 9-1-1 call for help.
“What’s the address on Staten Island?”
“We don’t know,” the caller says.
“You don’t know?” the operator says.
“We’re stuck in the sewers,” the caller says.
Declan Gannon, told a reporter: “Me and my friends just went in ’cause we were exploring, and then we went really far in, and then we just forgot where we were. It was scary, but, um, we called 911.”
Dispatch spent more than 30 minutes on the phone with the boys, trying to pinpoint their location in the cold, damp underground tube.
Firefighter John Loennecker with Ladder 79 said Rescue 5 went into the tunnel to operate in a confined space. Attached to a safety line and geared up with confined space masks at the ready, two firefighters traveled underground as the tube tightened to roughly 30 inches around as others lifted manhole covers overhead along the route.
He finally spotted them 40 feet in the tube, crawled in and led them out.
While he was happy to breathe fresh air, Declan’s relief quickly changed.
“They came and pulled us out, and I saw my mom’s friend that works on the ambulance, Victoria, and then I knew I was going to be in trouble.”
Danielle Farley told the reporter about the call from her friend: ‘We have Declan. I was relieved and also… I was relieved but upset, obviously, that he decided to crawl into a storm drain.”
Declan is now grounded.