Evansville parents share new details after 5-year-old is rescued from 30-foot pipe

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — The parents of the Evansville boy rescued from a well pipe on the 4th of July are speaking out about the rescue mission.

5-year-old Leo Hassebrock’s family said he is doing well just days after his dramatic rescue.

Video released shows emergency crews in Evansville working for more than an hour to figure out how to get the boy out of the 30-foot pipe.

During a news conference Tuesday in Evansville, Leo’s parents Daniel and Dianna Hassebrock said they were watching fireworks on the river when the boy fell down the well.

Rescuers say figuring out a way to save the boy was challenging, because the pipe is only 15 inches wide. Leo was awake and talking to the emergency crews the whole time he was in the pipe.

“When you’re laying on the ground in a little hole and you feel helpless, that’s a long time,” Daniel Hassebrock said.

Eventually they used a swing to lift him out, the flexible rubber kind with metal brackets on each side you would see at a playground.

The Hassebrock’s said they tried their best to remain hopeful during the 90-minute rescue.

“I knew if he panicked, we weren’t going to get anywhere,” Dianna Hassebrock said.

The water well pipe Leo fell into near One Life Church in Evansville is now welded shut.

Reporters at the news conference Tuesday did ask Leo’s parents what they were doing before the boy fell, but they didn’t answer that question. An attorney they had with them cut them off before they could. That attorney said it’s not clear whether or not the family will file a lawsuit.