A call from deep inside a Las Vegas flood control tunnel turned into a race to save a newborn who was not breathing.

On June 17, crews with Las Vegas Fire and Rescue responded to reports of a woman in labor inside one of the city’s flood control channels.

When firefighter paramedic Eric Paul reached the scene, he was immediately handed a newborn who was not breathing.

“A bystander said, ‘Help him,'” Paul recalled. “The cord was still attached. The placenta was still attached. He wasn’t responding initially.”

Working in the tunnel, Paul cleared the baby’s airway, stimulated him and clamped the umbilical cord so he could better assess the infant.

It was not the first time Paul had delivered a baby in an emergency.

“I delivered my oldest two, actually, and I think on the streets probably six or seven over the years,” he said.

Then the baby responded.

“The baby came around, and he was actually very, very healthy,” Paul said. “This went about as well as you could ever hope for.”

The baby’s mother made her way out of the tunnel after the birth and was taken to a local hospital with her newborn. Officials said both are expected to make a full recovery.

Assistant Chief of Suppression Ken Kreutzer said the rescue also highlighted that many unhoused people seek shelter inside Southern Nevada’s flood control tunnels, despite the dangers.

Officials said flash floods can develop with little warning, and the tunnels also pose other hazards. Over the past year, Las Vegas Fire and Rescue has responded to hundreds of fires in the tunnel system.

“I understand why they do it. It’s much cooler down there. It’s a shelter from the sun and the elements,” Paul said. “But it’s extraordinarily dangerous, not only for them, but for those of us that go down when things do get out of hand to rescue them.”

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