Man rescued after three days in pit

The swift action of personnel from the Stony Hill Fire Station may have saved the life of a man who spent the first few days of 2024 trapped in a pit in his backyard.

"Once a life is at stake, it is our responsibility to render whatever assistance is necessary to save a life, and I just want to use this opportunity to commend the officers who responded to this call. They did an excellent job," Patrick Gooden, senior superintendent at the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), told THE STAR on Monday.

The man, a resident of Bowden Hill, a quiet hillside community in rural St Andrew, is believed to suffer from epileptic seizures and was alone at home when he fell in the pit on December 30. Family members became concerned when the man was missing from the New Year celebrations.

On January 2, some of the man's relatives went to his residence and found him trapped in the pit. Immediately they sought the assistance of the JFB, personnel arrived at the premises at 5:08 p.m. to begin a search and rescue operation.

"From all indication, this one might quite possibly be our first search and rescue for 2024. Depending on the time that he was there, he may have been dehydrated and it is quite possible that the pit wasn't a deep one because if that were the case, he would've suffered broken bones under the circumstances. But based on our personnel's observation, based on the [incident] report, there were none," Gooden added.

The news team was informed by Gooden that the man was removed from the pit using rescue equipment. He was handed over to the care of his family.