FORESTVILLE, N.Y. — A 10-year-old girl in Forestville fell 20-30 feet while trying to retrieve a basketball – but thanks to the quick thinking of 8-year-old Mateo Ramos to call 911, firefighters quickly rescued her.
Mateo is just 8 years old, but on Friday, he took the initiative to call 911 to save his friend.
Dispatcher: 911, what is your emergency?
Mateo: Forestville Fire department somebody is hanging off a cliff… We need rescue so fast, I think the stick [holding her] is going to break.
Mateo and his friends were playing basketball at a court next door to the Forestville Fire Department.
Their ball rolled over the side of the very steep hill leading to Walnut Creek, so one of his friends, a 10-year-old girl, tried to get it.
“I thought she’d go sliding and grab it,” Mateo said. “But, I didn’t know there was mud right there.”
That’s when firefighters say that girl fell 20-30 feet down the banks of the creek and caught herself 10 feet from the bottom.
“She was hanging from the tree branch, a thick tree branch,” Mateo said.
He watched his friend cling to that tree branch for nearly 5 minutes, but Mateo remembered what his mom, April, always told him… to call 911 in case of an emergency.
“As soon as I pulled in, they were jumping up and down screaming for us to come where they were at,” said past chief of the Forestville Fire Department Kyle Barthel.
Barthel still volunteers for the fire department.
He and several other firefighters from both Forestville and Silver Creek were able to rappel down and rescue Mateo’s friend.
“I tied a rope off to a tree, I went to get behind the victim so she wouldn’t fall down any further,” Barthel said. “She said she was not hurt, just tired.”
Both Barthel and Silver Creek fire chief Brandyn Griewisch feel that Mateo is a great example for other kids to follow.
“You don’t hear about it often,” Griewisch said. “It definitely is nice to know some kids are smarter than we are when it comes to cell phones.”
“There’s a lot of adults who can’t make that call,” Barthel said. “So, for a young child to make a call and be calm about it is excellent.”
A young role model for everybody when they call 911 for an emergency.
