Overview
- A three-year-old boy fell into a 12- to 14-inch access pipe to a septic system and became stuck about four to five feet down, with part of his body in sewage.
- The child held onto a rope inside the pipe until rescuers used equipment to reach him and pull him out after roughly 25 minutes.
- Crews from the West Chester Fire Department, West Chester and West Goshen police, and the Chester County Rescue Task Force coordinated the extraction and took the boy by ambulance to a local hospital; officials said he was alert and did not appear to have major injuries.
- The boy’s brother witnessed the fall and told their mother, who called 911, and responders credited training and teamwork for the swift rescue.
- Police are investigating the incident as accidental and are examining whether the septic access was open or secured, a probe that could prompt safety checks on the sanitation property and similar confined-space hazards.