Yahoo News ‘Idiot’ explorer investigates tiny storm drain with only tealight candles - and gets stuck for seven hours
A dad has spoken how he feared he would die after crawling into a tiny storm drain and getting stuck inside for seven hours.
Self-confessed “idiot” Daniel Tredinnick, 43, said investigating the tunnel which leads from the beach into town had been a dream since he was a teenager.
He climbed inside the 15in rusty pipe and made his way 320m inland - armed with nothing more than eight battery powered tealights.
But his 6ft 2inch and 12st frame soon got stuck in the tiny tunnel, in the village of Shanklin, on the Isle of Wight.
Exhausted and fearing he would never make it out alive, he flipped on to his back and spotted a chink of light coming from a pavement drain cover ahead.
He inched towards it in a last ditch bid for survival and waited until someone walked by, and shouted for help.
He was eventually pulled to safety outside the Gracellie hotel by firefighters - seven hours after he climbed into the tunnel.
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A relieved Daniel said: “It took me five hours to crawl up there and it just kept getting smaller and smaller.
“I realised after three hours I could not go backwards so just kept going forward.
“I was wrong about where the drain might lead to.
“I was exhausted after five hours, I didn’t think I could keep going. I said goodbye to the world because I thought I’d never get out.
“I thought, ‘this is it’ and I said prayers on what I thought was my deathbed.
“I was physically exhausted and didn’t have the energy to pull myself out. The firefighters lifted me out.
“I was so happy to be out. I felt stupid and like an idiot. The firefighters were laughing about it and said it’s a nice change to get called out on interesting jobs.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see daylight again, so it was a massive relief.”
Following Daniel’s antics the Isle of Wight Council placed safety barriers across the entrance to the storm drain.
