Clay Emergency Crews Act Quickly To Locate Lost Child

The work by Clay County rescue crews this week avoided what could have been a tragic accident.

The county’s E-911 received a call of a missing six-year-old boy in a wooded area in Hilham. EMA Director Kyle Haney said crews immediately responded to the location and began the search process.

“We acquired a bunch of data, and we enter it in to what is called a lost person behavior,” Haney said. “We kind of develop a plan. The lost person behavior kind of sets guidelines or the age and the area that you’re in on about how far they suspect a person will get in a certain time frame.”

Haney said the software takes account of the person’s mental state and the topography of the land. Haney said based on the feedback, crews were able to locate the child in about 30 minutes some 2 miles away.

“The location was very remote and not a lot of traveled roads,” Haney said. “Not a lot of roads to be exact, and we were working that time frame where it was getting dark and we also had potential for severe weather, so we had to manage that and make sure the resources were there.”

The child was playing with his siblings when he got separated in a wooded area near the family’s home. Haney said the child’s family called emergency crews when the siblings alarmed them of the situation.

Haney said multiple agencies responded to find the child as quickly as possible. The Clay County Sheriff’s Office, EMA, Fire and EMS, Volunteer Rescue Squad, and Baptist Ridge Fire Department all participated.

“I’m definitely blessed as the EMA Director of Clay County,” Haney said. “We have a good group of first responders from multiple agencies.”