2-Year-Old Unhurt by Plunge Into 22-Foot Well

VASS, N.C. — There was a dramatic rescue in Moore County, where a 2-year-old boy plunged to the bottom of a 22-foot well near Vass. Friday, the child's family and the emergency workers who saved him talked to WRAL.

Tuesday, 2-year-old Nicholas Coles’ usual romp in the yard at Grandpa's could have cost him his life.

"One second he was there. The next, he disappeared, completely," said his mother, Melissa Coles.

She was walking alongside her son when he dropped through the ground and into an old well hidden by grass. He fell 22 feet!.

"Everything just stood still, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s my baby," Coles said Friday.

She ran to the hole and started clearing away dirt while her father dialed 911.

Rescue workers did not know what they’d find when they looked into the well.

“My first relief was there was no water in there," said Tony Sassano, Circle V Fire department chief.

“He looked like a little ant in that hole," said first responder Lindsey Wilson.

Sassano used a rope to lasso the boy.

“You’re busy doing your job, you don’t think too much about anything, but when you get him up and he comes out the top and you put him in his momma’s arms, that's a good feeling," the chief said.

"The fire truck got me out,” Nicholas said.

Now, he’s oblivious to what could have happened, but his parents say it's a miracle he walked away, unharmed.

"That was the greatest feeling in the world. I thought, ‘My baby's back,’" his mother said.

The well has been filled with dirt. It once was 80 feet deep and had been filled 16 months ago, but that dirt settled.