And they got them out just in time.

Were it not for their sweet little squeals, the newborn kittens probably wouldn't have lived one more day.

"I'm really happy they were able to get them out, I don't know how much longer they would have made it, they were very little," Cherie Wright says.

Forty Prince George's County firefighters were on the scene within 15 minutes.

Firefighter Vincent Verdadero harnessed up for this humanitarian mission.

After testing the air quality inside the sewer, he was lowered three feet down into the drain. Within one minute, the fragile felines were safely above ground with even Verdadero marveling at their size.

"They were about less than the size of my hand, so it was very like, oh wow, they really are tiny," he says.