An 8-year-old boy has survived a six-story fall down a trash chute at a Honolulu high-rise building, and he escaped the chute with help from a bystander who pulled him out using a hose, officials said on Tuesday.
The boy fell down a chute on the eighth floor of the condominium building on Monday, coming to a stop on the second floor when he hit a blockage of trash in the shaft, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Captain David Jenkins.
A bystander took an emergency hose from a hallway and dropped the end down to the child to pull him out, Jenkins said.
Dan Kaetsu, the resident who came to the boy's rescue, told television station KHON, a Fox affiliate, that he heard the boy screaming before he fed the hose down to him. At least one other person appears to have helped Kaetsu.
"We were pulling him up," Kaetsu told the station. "He was using the wall to walk up the trash chute."
ADVERTISEMENT
The boy had injuries to his hands and face and was taken by ambulance to a hospital but was expected to survive, said Honolulu Emergency Services Department spokeswoman Shayne Enright.
Kaetsu told KHON it appears the child was throwing out trash when he fell in the chute.
