WELL RESCUE - 1955

On April 16, 1955, rescuers saved toddler David Mark Counterman from an 18-foot water well in Aurora, Colorado.

Firefighters, city road workers and telephone company employees burrowed and bored to reach the 2-year-old who tumbled into the well hole, which was less than a foot in diameter. 

"He screamed all the time he was in the hole," said George Moorehead, fire chief of Aurora, quoted by the Associated Press. "But the minute we laid hands on him, he gave us a feeble smile and stopped. ... He knew he was OK." Recounting the four-hour incident, the Rocky Mountain News reported: "The first rescue squads on the scene immediately called for a power shovel" and "when it reached the 16-foot level, nine volunteers — in shifts — were lowered by ropes into the tunnel to begin their pick and shovel operations." Finally, Chief Moorehead and a volunteer firefighter named Frank Bruno went in and widened the hole a bit more to reach the toddler. “He stopped crying when he saw us,” Moorehead said. “The poor kid was bloodied and completely tuckered out." Oxygen hoses sustained David during the four-hour drama, while fire apparatus from Aurora, Denver, Fitzsimons Army Hospital and Lowry Air Force Base played floodlights on the successful rescue operation.