Firefighters in San Antonio drilled into a 1970s-era safe at a high school Friday to free a teenage student who became locked inside, officials said.
The student, a 16-year-old junior at Edison High School, became stuck at around noon, officials said.
Firefighters drilled holes into the filing cabinet-sized safe to increase air flow and inserted a tube of water so the boy could drink, and eventually cut a door in the rear to free the teen.
"It was challenging. We had our best guys working on it," San Antonio fire Battalion Chief Wesley West told reporters Friday. Crews opened a hole and gave the student a pen light and a blanket to ward off sparks as the safe was cut open, he said.
The student remained calm throughout the ordeal, West said. The teen was inside the safe for about three hours before he was freed, NBC station WOAI reported.
The safe hasn’t been used in about 15 years, the station reported. The two feet wide and four feet deep combination safe is located in the ROTC section of the high school.
The San Antonio Independent School District said in a release to the station that district officials “will be working to find out how this occurred and will take steps to ensure that it does not happen again."
