A 12-year-old boy who tried to climb a fence surrounding a high school swimming pool in Antioch instead slipped and impaled his leg on the fence, a fire official said Monday.
The boy survived the accident, which happened Saturday at Deer Valley High School. A medical helicopter that landed on the school’s football field took the boy to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, spokesman Steve Hill of the Contra Costa Fire Protection District said.
Fire personnel were called to the school just after 4:30 p.m. and found the boy with his leg impaled in part of the fence, Hill said. Investigators believe he was trying to climb the spiked wrought-iron fence to get into the school’s pool.
Two trucks with heavy rescue equipment were sent to the scene, Hill said, and fire crews fashioned a sling to take the boy to the ground. Hill did not say specifically how high the fence was but did say that crews needed to use ladders to reach the boy.
Crews had to cut the fence free from the boy’s leg with saws, a process that took about 25 minutes, Hill said. Crews took him down from the fence on the sling around 5:15 p.m. and the medical helicopter lifted off at 5:24 p.m., he said.
“He still had part of the fence in his leg when they took him to the field,” Hill said.
There was no update on the boy’s condition Monday.
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