Firefighters Rescue Boy, 12, Pinned Under Concrete Slab

It wasn’t just the quarter-ton concrete slab pinning down the 12-year-old Calabasas boy that concerned firefighters trying to rescue him Tuesday.

It was that rattlesnake in there with him.

Aaron Goodman was trapped in a ditch carved by rainwater beneath a concrete-lined drainage channel in a field near the 27000 block of Helmond Drive. Neighborhood children played in the foxhole-like opening, calling it “the fort.”

“He was playing under the drainage pipe with some friends” when the five-inch-thick slab collapsed into the ditch, said Capt. Glenn Mutch of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Two other children also in the ditch when it collapsed escaped with only minor injuries and ran for help, Mutch said.

An Urban Search and Rescue team slowly lifted the slab of concrete off Aaron with eight air bags, similar to those used to raise wreckage after the Northridge earthquake, said Capt. Larry Collins, who helped lead the rescue.

About half an hour into the rescue, firefighters noticed a rattlesnake about 25 feet from the boy at the end of the ditch, Collins said.

“We didn’t tell him about the snake, but I think he heard us talking about it,” said Collins. “He was yelling ‘Get me out of here’ and ‘why are you taking so long?’ ”

Aaron was freed at 5:20 p.m. and then airlifted to Westlake Medical Center where he was listed in good condition, according to a nursing supervisor at the hospital. He had no broken bones, but was admitted to the hospital for observation, she said.