Original Blog Entry: Fire Fighters Rescue Girl Stuck Playing Hide and Seek

truesee — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:11:38 GMT

Girl rescued from cardboard tube

JAMES L. WHITE

Harrison Daily

Published: Friday, August 14, 2009 6:05 AM

Sometimes a game of hide and seek can be very exciting.

That s what a 7-year-old girl found out Thursday morning when Harrison firefighters and a friend of the girl s parents had to rescue her from a large cardboard tube she had tried to hide inside.

James L. White/Staff

Harrison Fire Chief John Neal looks into a large cardboard tube in which a 7-year-old girl got stuck Thursday morning while playing hide and seek at St. John s Episcopal Day School.

Jackie Buxton, director at St. John s Episcopal Day School, said the girl and her classmates were playing hide and seek when the girl got in the tube. School workers said other children had hidden and climbed in the tubes in the past.

However, this time the girl got her leg wedged in the tube. Buxton said they took the tube outside and tried to use cooking oil to lubricate the girl s leg, but it didn t work.

So, they called the Harrison Fire Department s rescue squad to come finish the job.

Fire Chief John Neal talked to the girl to keep her calm while firefighters and Brandon Bolander, a friend of the girl s parent, used bolt cutters, a hacksaw and a cordless sawsall to cut the tube away from the girl s leg.

Neal explained that the child had gotten her leg wedged in the tube, her knee against the top and the bottom of her foot against the bottom. Due to that position with her heel against her buttock, she couldn t move forward or backward.

Eventually, Bolander cut the tube as firefighters kept the blade clear of the girl s leg and peeled away sections of the tube.

The girl was freed and didn t suffer any real physical injuries. Rescuers packed up there equipment to leave, but the girl made her feelings known.

Thank you, she told them as they walked away.

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