7-year-old swallowed up by dust devil and saved by teen umpire in shocking video
Topics: US News, Sport, Environment, Weather, Weird
Tom Wood
Featured Image Credit: KABB Fox 29 News
Topics: US News, Sport, Environment, Weather, Weird
A teenage umpire rescued a young boy after a dust devil swept across the field during a Little League baseball game.
Here's a video of how the whole shocking scene unfolded - it's some seriously impressive action from the young man.
The terrifying and unusual scene played out this past weekend at a youngsters’ game in Jacksonville, Florida when a dust devil – which looks like small version of a tornado – passed over the field and picked up a seven-year-old catcher.
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However, the day was saved by the quick thoughts and action of a 17-year-old umpire who leapt in and grabbed the boy, getting him out of the way.
Remarkably, the whole thing was captured on video, so you can see his heroic actions for yourself.
The hero of the day was Aidan Wiles, who rescued young Bauer Zoya from the heavy wind in short order.
A dust devil forms when there is strong surface heating, often at the meeting of two surfaces, for example dirt and asphalt.
Although they are often compared to tornados, they aren’t actually the same thing.
However, the winds that occur can be up to 60 miles per hour, which is enough to hurt someone, even if they are usually harmless.
Explaining his actions, Wiles said: "I’ve never seen anything like that my whole entire life, on or off the field.
“At first I was freaked out myself until I saw him trapped in it. So, I decided to run in there and grab him out of it.”
As for Bauer, the whole thing felt much longer than the seconds that we can see in the clip.
“I couldn’t breathe that much. So I held my breath and I feel like I couldn’t touch the ground. So I kind of lifted up a little bit,” he told local news.
"I was scared...I didn't know what to do, so I was thinking about something happy."
Bauer’s dad is amongst those who are most grateful for his rapid response.
Brian Zoya said: “A kid that just had the presence in mind to just do that, it’s just special to see.
“It was pretty cool to see yesterday. He had great parents raising him.”
In the end, no one was hurt too badly, and Bauer even returned to the game after his eyes had been cleaned out.
Dust devils can definitely be dangerous, though.
In 2019 one went through a tourist attraction in China, picking up a bouncy castle and leading to the sad death of two children.
Strong dust devils can cause damage to property, as well as potentially causing injury.
Still, nothing like that happened this time around, thankfully.