Volunteer firefighters rescue 10-year-old from cistern

When volunteer firefighters Battalion Chief Nicholas Carson, Captain Kevin Perkins, Firefighter Brenden Allen and Firefighter Joe Pike responded to a call about a child in a well on Sunday, April 7 they understood it was not going to be an average run.

The original dispatch at 4:46 p.m. said a 10-year-old had fallen down a 100-foot deep well at her home at 211 N. 2nd Street in Berry, said Carson.

Perkins arrived on the scene at 5:52 and immediately made contact with the child, who was in an old cistern about 30 feet down. The child was conscious, alert and able to communicate with him.

The child’s family had lowered a ladder into the cistern, but it fell apart, Carson explained. The child was able to get onto the ladder and was slightly out of the water.

Perkins tried to calm the scared, frustrated, soaking wet child, telling her help was on the way.

Five minutes after Perkins arrived, Engine #19 arrived on the scene from Station #2, driven by Pike. Carson and Allen arrived close on his heels along with Harrison County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Puckett.

Perkins served as Incident Commander. He immediately assigned Carson to make the descent into the cistern. As an EMT and the lightest of the four firefighters, Carson was the obvious choice to go down the cistern.

“Within three minutes of getting there I was in the hole,” Carson said.

Fitted with his own personal harness secured to a rope wrapped around a tree in the backyard, Carson entered the cistern and descended into the darkness, with Pike and Puckett controlling the rope.

“Once I was in the hole I don’t know anything that went on up top,” Carson said. “I can’t see Joe or anybody on the rope.”

Carson’s 13-year-old son Dalton, also a volunteer, held a flashlight over the cistern to provide light.

When he reached eye level with the girl, she grabbed hold of his boot, and when he was low enough she jumped jumped off the ladder and onto him, Carson said.

He managed to calm her down and checked her for injuries then advised the team up top that when Rescue 1 of the Harrison County Fire District arrived they should put a harness on a separate rope and lower it to to be placed on the child.

A 16-foot roof ladder was lowered into the cistern followed by the child’s harness, which Carson put on the girl.

“If you help me, I can climb up there,” she said.

Carson helped transfer her to the roof ladder. Crews up top kept tension on both ropes, and with four firemen holding on to the ladder, the child ascended with Carson helping her from below.

“When she was in reaching distance of their arms she went up like a rocket,” Carson said.

She immediately went into the care of Harrison County EMS personnel.

A helicopter from Air Methods had been dispatched and Perkins sent a crew to set up a landing zone for it in a field outside of town.

The child was put in an ambulance to take her to the helicopter. She was asking for Carson. He got in the ambulance with her. She thanked him and wanted him to ride in the helicopter with her, but that was not possible, Carson said.

The child was airlifted to U.K. hospital for treatment. Carson said her mother reached out to him on Facebook and said she was released the next day.

All of the firefighters on the scene were volunteers. In addition to the 15 personnel from the Harrison County Fire District were Dep. Puckett, one paramedic and one EMT, one member of EMA and three members of the Air Methods crew, as well as the two dispatchers who made the call for a total of 24 people involved in the operation.

Once all equipment was removed from the cistern, fire crews covered up the opening of the cistern with a heavy black folding table and a railroad tie to block access.

By 6:05 p.m. the helicopter was gone, vehicles were dispersed, and the landing lights removed from the field.

Carson, Pike, Perkins and Allen made much of the fact the the rescue was performed by volunteer firefighters.

“We take time from our families to do this,” Perkins said. “We do this because our heart’s in this department.”

Allen, who has only been a volunteer firefighter for a year, said, “I wanted to do something--anything--to help people out.”

As far as any of the firefighters involved can recall, this is the first rescue of its nature in the county.