Man hurt in fall off Lover's Leap in Bangor

By Dawn Gagnon
BDN Staff 

BANGOR - A man walking along a path at Lover's Leap became the focus of a rescue operation by city firefighters Tuesday evening after he fell an estimated 20 feet and injured himself.

The man, who was described as being in his mid- to late 20s but whose name, age and hometown weren't immediately available, was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center for treatment of head injuries and cuts to his arms and legs, Assistant Fire Chief Rick Cheverie said. No further information about his medical condition was available Tuesday night.

Cheverie said that firefighters were called to Lover's Leap, an area off Valley Avenue that has a steep cliff overlooking the Kenduskeag Stream, about 6:30 p.m.

"It appears that he lost his footing," Cheverie said. He said rescuers found the injured man after they were flagged down from across the stream by his girlfriend.

"We couldn't have seen him from the opposite bank, which is where we came in," he said.

Though the rescue operation did not require climbing, it did require that firefighters cross the stream to get to the man, put him onto a litter and stabilize him before carrying him back across the stream to a waiting ambulance, Cheverie said.

Water levels at this time of year are relatively low, ranging from ankle-deep to roughly knee-keep, or "just deep enough to get over the firefighters' boots, he said.

According to the Maine Memory Network, a website of the Maine Historical Society, Bangor's Lover's Leap "commemorates a young Native American couple who supposedly jumped to their deaths in the stream after being refused permission to wed."

Fire displaces tenants of Essex Street apartment building

 

By Dawn Gagnon
BDN Staff

BANGOR, Maine — Investigators were working Friday night to determine the cause of a fire that displaced the tenants of a seven-unit apartment building at 149-151 Essex St.

Assistant Chief Darrell Cyr of the Bangor Fire Department said the fire began at about 4 p.m. in a bedroom on the second floor of the building and had started to work its way up the exterior to the third floor when firefighters entered the building and knocked it down.

“The guys did an awesome job,” Cyr said, adding that no tenants or firefighters were injured.

Cyr said that fire damage was limited to the apartment in which the fire began and that there was water damage in the apartment directly under it.

The 2½-story building, owned by Paul Newman, was evacuated and residents were not allowed to stay in their apartments Friday night.

Though he did not know the total number of tenants displaced, Cyr said that all but six or seven tenants were staying with friends and family. The Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross has been asked to make housing arrangements for those without a place to stay.

Cyr said that investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Bangor Police Department were called in to help pinpoint the fire’s cause but he stopped short of calling the fire suspicious.

“We’re just crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s,” he said.

Cyr said that 19 Bangor firefighters from all three stations turned out and that Brewer and Hampden firefighters provided station coverage until the fire was extinguished.

A dollar estimate for damage resulting from the fire was not immediately available Friday. Cyr said he believed the building was insured.

Bangor firefighters rescue bridge jumper

By Dawn Gagnon
BDN Staff

BANGOR, Maine — Bangor firefighters rescued a man late Friday night who jumped from the Penobscot Bridge into the Penobscot River.

The man, whose name and age were not available, was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center, Assistant Chief Rick Cheverie of the Bangor Fire Department said.

He had been in the water for nearly 20 minutes before city firefighters found him using high-powered lights, binoculars and a thermal imaging camera.

Firefighters used a rescue boat they keep docked at Bangor Waterfront to pick him up. The man was conscious when he was found, Cheverie said.

“It’s always good when we have a success like this,” he said.

According to Cheverie, firefighters and police were called to the waterfront at 10:33 p.m. — 10 minutes after low tide — after a person who was on the bridge reported that a man had stripped off his outer clothes and jumped into the river.

Bangor police Sgt. Bob Bishop said it was not yet clear why the man jumped. Bishop estimated the distance from the bridge to the surface of the river at about 35 feet.

“He’s lucky to be alive,” Bishop said.

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