"It's with happy hearts that all Los Angeles city agencies are able to state that we have found Jesse Hernandez," fire Capt. Erik Scott said at the original scene Monday morning.
Jesse was reported missing about 4:30 p.m. the previous afternoon after he fell about 25 feet into the sewer pipe in Griffith Park, prompting a massive response from multiple agencies.
WATCH: LAFD announces missing boy found 'alive and talking'
LAFD announces missing boy found after falling into drainage pipe in Griffith Park
He was discovered "about a mile east of here, where the 134 westbound freeway goes underneath the 5 Freeway" as L.A. Sanitation personnel were opening a maintenance hatch to deploy a camera as part of the search, Scott said.
The boy was given a cellphone to call his family members, "who, as you can imagine, are overwhelmed with joy," the Los Angeles Fire Department captain said. Firefighter-paramedics attended to Jesse before he was transported to a hospital for treatment and decontamination.
The teenager and his family were celebrating Easter at Griffith Park on Sunday when he climbed onto an abandoned maintenance shack. When a plank underneath him broke, he plummeted into toxic water that was flowing at about 15 mph.
The drainage pipe is about 4 feet wide and is part of a closed sewage system, which provided search-and-rescue teams with few available access points.
More than 100 firefighters participated in the search, along with park rangers and personnel from the Los Angeles Police Department, Department of Water and Power, and the California Highway Patrol.
----------
* More local news
* Send us a news tip
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts