A freak accident left Jonno Stubbs, 61, trapped in a well at his property in Cheadle, Staffordshire, in February 2026. On Monday, 14 September, the two met again at Knutsford Fire Station. The fall left him with a broken back and foot, and he spent three weeks in hospital. During the rescue, firefighter Jack Gaskell, of Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service’s specialist Technical Rescue Unit, was lowered into the well to reach him and bring him to safety. Months later, Stubbs set out to find the firefighter who had helped save his life.
Stubbs was building a workshop for his motorcycles on February 1, 2026, when the accident happened. He puts the fall at 50 feet, though Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service described it as 30 feet on the day. Emergency services were called at about 8:40am. Stubbs was brought out at about 10:35am, almost two hours after the alarm was raised, and assessed by ambulance crews at the scene.
He told the BBC he had simply walked across his yard when the paved ground gave way and he dropped into an 18th-century well. “There was a big splash,” he said. Three Staffordshire crews attended, along with a technical rescue unit from neighbouring Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service. Gaskell had been lowered on a rope attached to a triangular metal frame. Once beside Stubbs, he reassured him and fitted him with a rescue harness so he could be winched to the surface.
Three weeks in hospital and a difficult recovery
Gaskell said that in 22 years in the fire service, no one he had rescued had ever reached out to find him.
“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be sitting here today,” he said. Being contacted, he said, meant a great deal. “We do this job to help people,” he added, but you rarely get the chance to see someone afterwards.
Stubbs spent months trying to find Gaskell so he could thank him in person. He arranged the meeting at Knutsford Fire Station, where, alongside Becci Fisher, he also met the wider crew. He described the reunion as giving him “a little bit of closure.