Naples firefighters save boy trapped in playground

Reporter: Gina Tomlinson Writer: Drew Hill
Published: Updated:
city of naples fire rescue

Firefighters never know what their days will bring, and they probably didn’t imagine they’d see a father rushing into Station One from Cambier Park on Sunday.

“The father came over and he said he needed a shovel. I said, ‘what’s it for?'” said Eric Baltodano of City of Naples Fire Rescue. “He said his child was trapped under some playground equipment.”

If you go to Cambier Park, you can still see the gap in woodchips beneath the equipment where the 4-year-old boy crawled beneath the playground equipment.

“He had gone through several compartments so he was in the middle of the structure,” Baltodano said.

Firefighters estimate that the young boy dug multiple holes to get to where he was. “He dug more than one hole. Not just through one area either. I’m going to say he dug two or three holes to get to the area he was at.”

All of those holes made it difficult to track him. Lt. Bill Warren said he was amazed. “To be honest with you, I was just impressed.”

Warren and his crew were just happy and thankful to get the boy back to safety.

“He didn’t seem scared… just kind of patiently sat back there and waited for us,” Warren said. “Wanted to give him a high five…so it was pretty neat.”

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