Lee volunteer firefighters save man from falling off metal roof

LEE – Volunteer firefighters rescued a town man who almost fell about 20 feet Monday off a one-story metal roof onto some boulders while attempting to install a new chimney. No one was injured.

Lewis Noble was atop his new roof at his Cobb Road residence at about 3 p.m. fixing chimney rigging when his foot slipped from the nonsecure chimney and he almost fell, he said Monday.

Suddenly, his predicament was severe. Besides some chilly winds, the slick and sharply-angled roof, the height and the rocks below, Noble has a rebuilt right shoulder that was beginning to ache from the strain of holding on, but he didn’t feel very cold.

“I was too busy shaking to be cold,” Noble said wryly.

Noble’s wife, Karen, was home, and when she noticed what happened, she called 911, telling dispatchers that her husband was becoming fatigued, Lee Volunteer Fire Chief Jay Crocker said.

“The only thing he was caught by was a brace to the chimney,” Crocker said. “He couldn’t get back to his ladder.”

Lee firefighters immediately called for an ambulance from Penobscot Valley Hospital to go to Nobles’ residence in case they didn’t arrive in time. PVH’s ambulances were on other calls, so dispatchers sent an East Millinocket Fire Department ambulance, East Millinocket firefighters said.

Lee firefighters arrived within eight minutes. Firefighters Gene Cramer, Charlie Willett and Jerry Crocker – the fire chief’s father – immediately placed a ladder at the edge of the roof below Noble to catch him if he slipped before they could get to him, Chief Crocker said.

With Chief Crocker holding a second ladder and firefighter Don Wilson at the top of it, firefighters rigged a safety line from one chimney brace to the second ladder that Noble used to climb down to Wilson. Wilson steered Noble to the other ladder and Noble climbed down under his own power, Chief Crocker said.

“He was a lot better shape when he knew he wasn’t going to fall off the roof,” Crocker said.

The ambulance was dismissed before it arrived.

Noble, a retired Air Force environmental systems repairman, was grateful for the firefighters’ help and philosophical about the jam he found himself in.

“The breaks just didn’t go my way,” he said.

Noble should not feel too badly, Chief Crocker said. The metal roofs also are vexingly slick for firefighters during fires or rescues, especially when the roofs are wet or icy.

“We’re still trying to figure out how to deal with them ourselves,” Crocker said.