Off-Duty Wrentham Firefighters Save Demolition Worker From 25-Foot Fall

NORFOLK (CBS) – Two off-duty Wrentham firefighters saved a man on Thursday from a 25-foot fall.

Norman Gray wears two hats. One day he is a firefighter and the next day he is running his hydroseeding company.

Gray and his fellow firefighter Joe Cuddihy were hydroseeding when they heard a scream for help.

As they followed the scream, they found a demolition worker dangling from an old airplane hangar.

"We come around the corner, we go inside and there's the guy hanging from the ceiling head-first, down towards a concrete floor about 25 feet up like a bat," said Gray.

Another worker was holding the man by his ankle but quickly losing his grip.

"So I looked quickly to see if there was something we could put underneath him. There was nothing. I said Joe we gotta catch him. Joe's like we'll catch him," said Gray.

It seems the two were at the right place at the right time.

"And then Joe yelled up to the guy, we got him. And there was no way we could catch him unless we tried to catch him and in the process we broke his fall. We all landed on the concrete," said Gray.

A fall that distance could have led to something much worse than a broken bone.

"It could have been fatal, it could have been a fatal accident, that high," said Norfolk paramedic Mark Amiot.

All three men walked away without any life-threatening injuries.