Firefighters Rescue Man

Dangling 40 Feet Above Ground

By Andrew Gorosko

A man who was doing tree work about 40 feet above ground in a residential yard on Walker Hill Road late on the morning of Friday, April 17, experienced a malfunction in the bucket truck that he was using, resulting in his being jolted out of the bucket and suspended from it by a safety harness until he could be rescued by firefighters.

Tommy Paloian, 24, of Monroe, the proprietor of Mack’s Landscaping and Tree Service, explained that while working within the extended bucket of his bucket truck at the Ross residence at 5 Walker Hill Road, the hydraulically powered device malfunctioned, resulting in the bucket colliding with a tree branch. That impact launched him out of the bucket.

But because he was wearing a safety harness around his torso, he remained suspended, dangling below the bucket until firefighters could extend a truck-mounted ladder upward to him to retrieve him from his precarious position.

Botsford, Sandy Hook, and Hook & Ladder firefighters responded to the 10:48 am call for help, as did police and ambulance volunteers.

Botsford Fire Chief Wayne Ciaccia, who was the incident commander, explained that firefighters extended the ladder from Sandy Hook’s Quint fire truck upward to Mr Paloian. Firefighters scrambled up the ladder to ease his return to the ground.

Following his rescue, Mr Paloian said that he was a bit sore, but was otherwise all right.

“The safety harness saved me, pretty much…Thank God for the harness,” he said.

The incident occurred so rapidly that he had no time to react before he found himself dangling beneath the bucket, he said. His suspended position did not allow him to pull himself up into the bucket, he said. He estimated that he was hanging from the bucket for about 20 minutes.

“I’m sore…It could have been a lot worse,” he said.

The incident was the first time that he ever had such an accident while doing tree work during the past seven years, he said.

A former Town of Newtown worker and former member of the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company, Mr Paloian grew up in Newtown and attended Newtown High School.

Ambulance volunteers checked Mr Paloian at the scene before releasing him.

Mr Paloian said he would get the damaged bucket truck repaired.