Northwest Indiana firefighters rescue man with leaf blower from roof, finish cleaning his gutters
Firefighters in northwest Indiana responded to a bizarre rescue call on the roof of a home in Chesterton. Not only did they save the day, they went way above the call of duty to clean up a mess.
As firefighters in Chesterton rolled out on Sunday, a man tried not to roll off his roof.
"He was slipping down the roof, and he was getting close to the gutter," firefighter Rudy Jimenez said.
"It was like, oh this guy's hanging. So we didn't know what to expect," firefighter Nick Cosme said.
The man they rescued asked to remain anonymous.
"Yeah, I just don't want the attention, I guess," he said.
But he's grateful to be in one piece, so gladly shared his story.
"I just got rambunctious with the new blower," he said.
He brought a new backpack leaf blower up to his roof to clean out the gutters and quickly realized that was a mistake.
"I was tired quick," he said.
Then, he lost his balance.
"Once I got the wet leaves, I tried to slide down, and I just kept sliding," he said.
His foot hit the gutter, and he held on for dear life and shouted to his son to call 911.
"Yeah. I said, 'You've got to call them. I'm stuck,'" he said.
Firefighters Rudy Jimenez, Marc Mihalik, Josh Mohlke and Nick Cosme answered the call.
"We figured his name was Clark Griswold," Mohlke said, referring to the character from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, who ended up hanging from the gutter of his home while putting up Christmas lights.
But there were no Christmas lights in Chesterton, just a guy and a leaf blower.
"The guys grabbed the ladder. I had my gear on. Ran up the ladder to stabilize the guy," Cosme said.
Firefighters got the guy down, and then took care of the rest of the work.
"I look, and the guy's got a leaf blower. I'm like, he just starts blowing leaves. I don't even where that thing came from. He had a handheld one," the man said.
The firefighters took care of all the leaves.
"I was cleaning with my hands," Mihalik said.
"Any of the other crews, they would've done the exact same thing without question," Jimenez said.
"I'm like, 'This is awesome,' you know what I mean," the man they rescued said.
"We didn't get into this career for accolades. You know, we did it just help and kind of be like the nameless heroes, if you will," Cosme said.
As for this guy, his gutters are clean and he's utterly grateful.
"Beyond the call of duty, is that what they say? Above and beyond the call of duty," he said.