HONOLULU (AP) — An 8-year-old Hawaii boy survived a six-story fall down a condominium building trash chute and was pulled out by a neighbor who lowered a fire hose to him.
The boy fell into piled-up trash Monday and suffered cuts and bruises, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Dan Kaetsu, 29, an elementary school counselor who lives on the eighth floor of Salt Lake Manor, told KITV-TV he was doing laundry when the boy’s 13-year-old aunt rushed up to him.
She told Kaetsu that the boy, who also lives on the eighth floor, had taken out the trash and had fallen down the chute. Kaetsu wasn’t sure how he fell in.
The boy landed on trash piled up to the second floor.
Kaetsu grabbed a flashlight and looked down the chute, and he could see the boy standing up, crying for help, KHON-TV reported. He said the teenage aunt was “freaking out” and yelling down to the boy.
Kaetsu broke the glass fire hose box and dropped the hose into the chute.
“Once he said he had it, I pulled him up,” Kaetsu said.
The boy kept slipping. Kaetsu could feel slack in the hose at times.
“So I told him to wedge his feet and hands against the wall so he could keep his grip and he could start to walk up when he got closer to the top,” Kaetsu said.
Kaetsu hoisted him to the eighth floor. Firefighters arrived just as he boy emerged, crying. He was cut on top of his head, his arm and his feet, Kaetsu said.
Honolulu Fire Department Capt. David Jenkins said firefighters stabilized the boy and he was transported to a hospital.
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