11-year-old Juliana Fischer was at her Massachusetts home when she suddenly heard cries for help coming from her neighbor, Kathleen Freeman. Freeman’s 5-year-old son, Jack, was playing in the yard with his cousins when he stepped on a well cover, which gave way beneath him and caused him to plummet 20 feet underground. “I heard a banging noise and then a scream… that I never heard out of my son before,” said Freeman, who was entertaining family members when she realized her son’s cries were coming from below. Jack was holding onto a pole and standing on a rock to keep himself above the water.

Upon hearing her neighbor’s cries for help, Fischer called 911 and rushed outside. Freeman was trying to console her sobbing son while Fischer grabbed a ladder with the help of her father. “I was just talking to Jack, the little kid who fell down. He was just crying and holding onto the pipe. While she was talking to 911, I saw the ladder over there. My dad went and got a rope. By the time we got a ladder down there, he started to climb up,” said Fischer. “We just told Jack to like switch over from the pipe he was holding onto to the ladder and just come up slowly,” said Freeman. Despite his fear, the little boy was able to make his way up the ladder and back to his relieved mother.

EMT’s at the scene checked Jack, who apart from some minor scratches was unhurt. He was taken to Lowell General Hospital to be looked over and cleared. “He was really brave, and I’m so thankful for Juliana. It was a very good feeling when he got out of the well,” Freeman said of her son and of Fischer. Fischer, for her part, remained humble about her role. “I don’t know. Anyone would have done the same thing,” she said. She credited Fischer as having “saved the day” with her quick thinking.

Responders covered up the well with a heavy metal plate on top of the well along with wells on top to prevent the cover from slipping. They have assured the concerned mother they will provide a more permanent and secure covering shortly.