After Two Hours, Boy’s Finger Freed from Pool Jet

AUBURN, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say it took emergency crews two hours to free a 4-year-old boy after his finger got stuck in a discharge jet at a public pool in central New York.

Auburn Fire Chief Jeff Dygert says the boy was swimming Wednesday at the city-owned pool when he stuck his finger into the less than half-inch opening of a water jet that's part of the skimmer system.

Dygert says the boy's father and pool staff held the boy in about 4 feet of water while firefighters cut a hole in the pool's stainless steel skimmer structure to gain access to the water jet's back end and free his finger.

Dygert says he was taken to a Syracuse hospital to be checked out for possible hypothermia and damage to his finger.