MANCHESTER, NH – Smoke coming from a campfire in the woods Saturday signaled to firefighters that there might be someone in trouble.
Just before 2 p.m. on Dec. 9 the E-7 crew from Somerville Station was clearing a medical call on Willow Street Street when they noticed smoke coming from a wooded area across the street. Upon investigating they discovered a dwindling camp fire with an unconscious man lying on the ground 10 feet away. It had been snowing for several hours at this point and it was clear that this man had been in this position since before it began snowing. The man was unconscious and when fire crews began to assess him he had signs of hypothermia. Fire crews, with the assistance of crews from AMR, provided care and transported the man to a local hospital.
His condition was not immediately known.
District Chief Mike Gamache credit’s the observant fire crew and their actions for saving the man’s life, as he was in a wooded area where no passerby would have found him otherwise.