Boy Prayed to God While Trapped in Los Angeles Sewer for 12 Hours Before 'Miracle' Rescue
While 13-year-old Jesse Hernandez spent 12 hours on Sunday into Monday morning trapped in Los Angeles' maze of sewer pipes not knowing whether he would live or die, he says that there was only one thing he could do in his moment of despair.
"I was just praying to God to help me and to not die," Hernandez told NBC 4 after a miraculous overnight rescue. "I was scared."
Hernandez was celebrating Easter with his family at Griffith Park when he snuck into a decommissioned building and fell through a hole and into the rushing waters of the city's underground sewage system.
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Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Erik Scott told the local news station that there were slim "chances of surviving in that toxic environment."
"To be honest with you, we were surprised we found him overnight," Scott said.
"It does feel like a miracle," Scott added. "Mouths dropped when that hatch was opened and we got reports back that Jesse was alive."
Authorities say that Hernandez fell through the hole while he was jumping on a wooden plank (that broke) in an abandoned building that had served as a sewage venting station but was decommissioned by the city years back. Hernandez fell about 25 feet into a 4-foot wide pipe.
"It was all quiet. You could just hear the water running through and you couldn't see anything. It was dark." Hernandez told the news station. "I kept on going. The water, it took me."
A massive search was conducted to find Hernandez. According to the Los Angeles Times, city workers launched two video cameras with lights on floating platforms into a 1.2–mile span of pipe where the search was focused. It was the cameras that enabled the rescuers to refine their search.
At around 5:30 a.m., the child was eventually rescued after sanitation workers lifted a manhole on the 134 freeway to launch another camera in the sewer system. He was found about a mile east where Hernandez first fell into the sewage system, according to CBSLA.
"Once I pulled the lid off the manhole cover he was just like right there," a sanitation worker told police in a recorded call broadcast by CBSLA.
Scott told NBC4 that sanitation crews played a large role in identifying the most likely areas where Jesse might have been and identified a section of piping that included about 6,400 feet of sewer line.
Responders were able to narrow the search even more when they noticed hand markings on the walls of the pipes.
"It appears he was trying to get out," Los Angeles Sanitation Department Assistant Director Adel Hagekhalil told NBC 4. "Right away, our team focused on that location."
Only 2,400 feet of pipes had been searched before Hernandez was found.
Hernandez was taken to a nearby medical facility to be decontaminated and evaluated. The child was later released with no apparent injuries.
Following the incident, the city has installed a new fence around the building where Hernandez fell through to the active sewer pipe. Crews have also boarded up open windows where trespassers could enter and re-covered the hole on the roof of the building that Hernandez fell through.
