Fire crews rescued a teen who fell 40 to 50 feet into an abandoned missile silo in Arapahoe County on Wednesday afternoon, according to a Sable Altura Fire Rescue Facebook post.

It was the second such rescue to occur over the past year.

Firefighters from Bennett-Watkins Fire Rescue, South Metro Fire and Sable Altura Fire Rescue were called to the incident, which happened south of East Quincy Avenue near Watkins, around 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, according to reporting from Denver Gazette news partner 9News.

South Metro Fire Rescue said three people, two teens and an adult, were at the top of the silo when one of the teens fell in, reaching water that wasn’t deep enough to go over his head, according to the 9News report.

“They were messing around with the top of the silo and an accident happened and the one juvenile fell in,” Brian Willie, a spokesperson for SMFR, told 9News.

Rescuers “immediately” built a rope system, lowering into what is believed to be the exhaust vent tunnel of a decommissioned Titan Missile Facility, according to Sable Altura Fire Rescue. They put the teen in a harness to pull him out of the silo.

He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to 9News.

The silo is on private property, SMFR said. The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said trespassing charges are pending, 9News reported.

“A reminder…the military history on the eastern plains of Colorado is better left to the history books,” Sable Altura Fire wrote in a Facebook post about the incident. “PLEASE do not think for any moment that these are safe environments to enter or explore.”

Wednesday’s was the second reported incident of a person falling into an abandoned missile silo in Colorado in the past year.

In mid-2024, Deer Trail firefighters rescued an 18-year-old who fell 30 feet into an eastern Arapahoe County missile silo while trespassing deep inside the tunnel system.

The man sustained serious injuries after falling into an “elevator-like shaft” according to previous Denver Gazette reporting.

Arapahoe County Sheriff officials, firefighters and rescuers called the rescue in May a once-of-a-kind and hopefully once-in-a-career, indicating the rescue was “treacherous.”

Upon arrival, rescue teams were approached by five teens outside of the silo — two boys and three girls. They told first responders that a boy and the 18-year-old man were trapped inside of the abandoned bunker, according to an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office news release.

After a two-hour search, Deer Trail Fire Chief Tyler Loveless said rescuers heard the screams of multiple teenagers. One of them was escorted out of the silo, while another teen stood by the side of his seriously hurt friend. They were located down under a pitch black shaft, which was inaccessible without a ladder or ropes, according to the Sable Altura firefighter.

The silo complex 2B DO45 is a Cold War leftover, one of six Titan 1 missile complexes in Colorado that are no longer functional.

The silos include a cluster of shelters built by the government in the late 1950’s and 1960’s amid fears of the Cold War, including the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. It was operational from 1961 through 1965.

The hall inside the silo from 2024’s rescue, which starts at its entrance with graffiti reading “welcome to paradise,” consists of “a maze of tunnels and loose metal and wires,” Loveless said. “Literally death around every corner down there.”

Colorado’s six former Titan 1 missile complexes are scattered around the Front Range. Four are in the Former Lowry Bombing and Gunnery Range east of Aurora and another is located south of Elizabeth according to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. The CDPHE worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate and clean up the complexes.

The complexes were decommissioned and missiles removed in 1965, after which public and private owners acquired the complexes.

After the 2024 silo rescue, Loveless urged trespassers to not visit the silos.

“The dangers are more real than most people probably understand,” Loveless said. “There’s not only the danger of the noxious gases that can kill you in there — from when the military had nitrogen, kerosene — but there’s the dangers of all of the rusty jagged metal.”

Sable Altura Fire Rescue said Wednesday’s rescue was completed “very rapidly,” giving kudos to the “fantastic command structure and scene management” on the call. 

“The dedicated emergency response of the three agencies that operated this rescue under this command, and the interoperability allowed this rescue to be completed VERY rapidly,” the post said.