5-Year-Old Who Fell Down Storm Drain Rescued With Swing

Firefighters are explaining how they rescued a boy who fell 30 feet down a 15-inch-wide storm drain during a Fourth of July fireworks show.

Leo Hassebrock, 5, spent an hour and a half in the storm drain before firefighters in Evansville, Indiana, were able to pull him to safety.

Firefighters used a seat from a swing set to help save little Leo.

“I just came up with the idea, if we could get something between his legs and yank him up that way, he's not gonna fall over, so I said, ‘What if we had, like, a seat from a swing?’” firefighter Lucas Macke said at a press conference Tuesday about the unconventional method. 

The rescuers signed the swing for the little boy after the rescue.

Leo suffered minor cuts and bruises.

"He was down that hole for an hour and a half," Leo’s dad, David Hassebrock, told reporters Tuesday at the press conference. "It doesn't seem like long, but when you're lying on the ground [looking] down a little hole, you feel helpless.

"It's a long time."

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