Boy saved after being trapped in chimney

Rescuers try to communicate with the trapped boy. Picture: Dave Taylor/Stockpix.eu

It took firefighters in Carluke, South Lanarkshire, an hour and a half to dismantle the stack to free the 14-year-old boy who was wedged inside.

It is still not known how the boy, who received minor injuries, came to fall down the chimney and police say they are looking into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The incident happened on Wednesday afternoon, and the boy was named locally as Ross Anderson.

A Scottish Fire and Rescue spokesman said that the removal of the boy had been “a delicate operation” and had to be carried out “carefully and methodically”.

He said: “Initial attempts were made to rescue the youth from both the top and bottom of the chimney.

“However, these proved unsuccessful due to his position. This meant that the only possible way to release him was to remove brickwork.”

He added: “The boy was taken to hospital as a precaution.”

A spokeswoman from Police Scotland, said: “We were called to a report of a teenager believed to be stuck within a chimney of a business premises on Hamilton Street, Carluke at around 17:20 on Wednesday. Emergency services attended and the boy was freed around 18:50.”

The boy was wedged in the chimney of Brooks’ furniture store on High Street, Carluke.

Firefighters worked at the back of the shop – on Cassels Street – to free him. Brooks also has a ladies clothes shop on Hamilton Street in Carluke.

No-one from Brooks was available to comment.

One eyewitness said: “I heard he’d made a bet to go up on the roof and into the chimney.”

Earlier this month the body of serial burglar, Kevin Gough, 42, was found wedged inside a chimney at a law firm in Derby.

He was discovered at Moody and Woolley Solicitors after staff complained about a bad smell and an infestation of flies.

Pest control workers found his body when they arrived to get rid of what they believed was a pigeon. Police estimated that Gough’s body had been in the chimney for about four weeks.