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Man, 40, rescued by fire, police, EMS after getting stuck in Conn. tube slide
The patient was freed within 30 minutes and was evaluated on scene by EMS, according to the fire department.
In an incident that recalls a similar scenario on the long-running television show “The Simpsons,” a 40-year-old man had to be rescued from inside a tube slide on a school playground in Connecticut Saturday.
Just after 4:30 p.m., the Vernon Fire Department, Vernon EMS, and Vernon police were all dispatched to Northeast Elementary School on East Street after receiving a report of an adult male getting stuck in a tube slide, according to an account posted to Facebook by the fire department.
Responders found the man had become stuck in the middle portion of the slide, “wedged feet and head first,” apparently in a folded position. That’s when officials requested additional apparatus and manpower, including Rescue 141 and Tower 541.
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EMS personnel provided oxygen to the man, who was in “extreme discomfort,” according to the fire department. Responders also set up ventilation to help cool the space. Tower 541, meanwhile, used its aerial ladder to stabilize the section of slide the firefighters were removing to reach the patient.
The patient was freed within 30 minutes and was evaluated on scene by EMS, according to the fire department. The man refused treatment and transport to a local emergency room.
The department’s Facebook post about the incident had garnered more than 1,000 engagements as of Monday morning, along with more than 450 shares and 400+ comments, many of them along the lines of this one from Don G.: “He’s going to wish they left him there. How do you live that down?”
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In the episode “Brush with Greatness” from Season 2 of “The Simpsons,” Homer, the hapless father of the Simpson clan, gets stuck inside a water slide and must be rescued by crane, whereupon he’s booed by assembled bystanders.
While there’s no record of a similar event in Boston, an August 2023 incident involving a Boston police officer videotaped exploding from a metal slide at City Hall Plaza set off a viral sensation.
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