FIREFIGHTERS from the Provincial Consortium for Fire Extinction in Toledo rescued a three-year-old boy after he fell into a 15-metre-deep well in Tembleque, in a complex operation on Saturday afternoon.
The child was with his family in a rural area near the Cristo del Valle hermitage when he fell into the opening and emergency services were called.
The bomberos found a very narrow shaft of around 30 centimetres in diameter, which was linked to an old waterwheel on private land.
Nine firefighters from Orgaz and Villacanas, along with a duty officer from Toledo, were deployed to the scene.
READ MORE: Woman rescued by firefighters after becoming trapped in floodwaters in Estepona
Toledo Firefighters
Rescuers had to work carefully due to the depth of the well and the extremely tight space.
One firefighter was lowered into the shaft to reach the child while the rest of the team set up a lifting system to bring them both out.
‘The entrance to the well was very narrow,’ fire brigade sergeant Alejandro Cepeda said, ‘and we decided that while one firefighter descended to support the child, the others would devise a system to lift both from the depths.’
A firefighter who also took part in the rescue, told CMM, that the child was conscious throughout and explained the complexity of these rare but high-risk operations, highlighting the importance of preventing access to old wells.
The boy, who suffered multiple injuries, was treated as a polytrauma patient and had to be lifted out in a rigid position to avoid further harm, according to firefighters.
The rescue took around two hours before the child was brought safely back to the surface.
Medical teams treated him at the scene before transferring him to the Hospital Universitario de Toledo.
The Guardia Civil has opened an investigation to determine how the well was left uncovered and how the child fell in, with officers assessing possible liabilities.
The mayor of Tembleque, Jesus Fernandez, said that the rural plots in the area are open and accessible, meaning incidents of this kind can happen on private land.
Firefighters said images of the rescue show the extreme difficulty of the operation, which has drawn comparisons in Spanish media to previous well accidents in Spain.
Click here to read more Spain News from The Olive Press.
