‘Not what you see every day’: 10-year-old boy rescued after being stuck in chimney of Whitman home

WHITMAN, Mass — Firefighters rescued a 10-year-old boy who became stuck in the chimney of his Whitman home Wednesday afternoon.

The boy’s father told Boston 25 News that while he was at work his son had slipped out a second-floor window, scaled the roof of their Harvard Street home, hopped into the chimney and become caught up on something.

The boy’s brother called their father, who rushed home to find his son already safely on the ground.

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10-year-old rescued from chimney in Whitman

Neighbor Karen Boyd, who filmed the rescue on her cell phone from over the fence, said her brother was outside at the firepit when he heard the boy yelling for help.

“I was like, ‘Oh, dear God. How did that little boy scale that roof and not fall down, because it is a very steep roof?!’” Boyd said.

Janet Happnie heard the commotion across the street and watched from her home as one firefighter approached the boy from a ladder truck and a second firefighter set up a ground ladder and climbed to the top.

“It’s not what you see every day,” Happnie said. “You look out the window, and it’s like, ‘Whoa, there’s a kid in the chimney!’”

Both Boyd and Happnie nervously watched as the firefighters maneuvered the boy out of the chimney, into their arms and onto the ladder before safely lowering him down. The boy was not hurt.

Happnie watched as the boy’s father rushed to embrace his son.

“Very slowly, very slowly they brought him down,” Happnie said. “And then his dad parked over here, [came] running up and [the boy] just flew into his dad’s arms, just crying and crying and crying. I felt so bad.”

Neighbors expressed both disbelief and relief at what they had witnessed.

“Oh, total relief. It was like, ‘Oh, thank God… Everything went well, nothing happened, nobody slid off the roof, and yeah, it was a relief.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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