TYNGSBORO, Mass. — The family of a 5-year-old boy who fell 20 feet below into a well this weekend is applauding the quick thinking of their 11-year-old neighbor.
Kathleen Freeman, the 5-year-old’s mother, was hosting relatives at her home over the weekend.
“It was a crazy morning,” she told Boston 25.
Friday, her son Jack was running around with his cousins in the front yard near their neighbor’s well.
Freeman added, “I heard a banging noise and then a scream... that I never heard out of my son before.”
She rushed over to find Jack 20 feet below, standing in the water. She says his fall was broken by a pipe and a rock in the well.
Across Bowers Avenue, 11-year-old Juliana Fischer heard Katheleen and Jack’s screams.
She rushed across the street and called 911. Kathleen eventually took the phone.
“I see the ladder that’s leaning against their house,” she told Boston 25 Sunday. “I take it and just put it down, trying not to hit him, but like very quickly.”
Kathleen added, “We just told Jack to like switch over from the pipe he was holding onto to the ladder and just come up slowly.”
Jack was soaking wet, but able to safely get up to friends, family, and EMTs who were above.
He only sustained scratches, his family said.
They’re crediting Juliana’s quick thinking on Friday morning.
Kathleen finished, “She saved the day.”
Jack’s family said he fell through the well cover.
Tyngsboro Fire put a heavy well cover on top after the incident, with cinder blocks stabilizing it.
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