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Dramatic harbor rescue: 'He was blue. He was shivering'

E-mail|Link April 5, 2010 11:50 AM

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

When Fire Captain Neal Mullane arrived on Lewis Wharf this morning, he knew something was wrong.

"There was a wheelchair and nobody in it,'' Mullane, commander of Ladder 1, said. About 50 feet away, he saw a man in the water, clinging to the seawall. "He was blue. He was shivering. He was cold.''

As firefighters from Ladder 1 and Engine 8 scrambled to pull ladders and rescue equipment off the trucks around 6:30 a.m. today, Mullane and firefighter Michael Higgins found themselves closest to the heavy-set disabled man.

Boston Fire Capt. Neal Mullane (Dina Rudick / Globe Staff)

Standing on the north side of Lewis Wharf, Mullane shed his heavy fire gear and stripped down to work shorts and a T-shirt. Without prompting, Higgins dumped his bunker gear, leaving him in work pants and a T-shirt.

"I didn't order Mike in,'' Mullane said. "Sometimes you go in the window, and sometimes you go in the door. In this case, you go into the harbor.''

The two men clambered down a 16-foot ladder placed against the seawall and reached out to the shivering man whose lips had turned blue from prolonged exposure to the 45 degree water.

"He said he had been there for about an hour,'' Mullane said of the man. "He was pretty cold. He was standing on an old piece of [wooden] pier. And was in about eight feet of water.''

Mullane said he and Higgins went to separate sides of the man and wrapped a life belt around him, and then attached the belt to the ladder "so he wouldn't go anywhere.''

As he and Higgins talked with the man and made sure he did not drift away – sometimes standing in water up to their necks – more help was arriving on Lewis Wharf, including Rescue 1.

"He wasn't able to get up the ladder and we couldn’t lift him up,'' said Mullane, who added that the man told him he had been shouting for help for about an hour.

Firefighters pulled the man up the ladder as Mullane and Higgins remained in the cold water, steadying the ladder as the man was rescued.

Mullane said the man is a North End resident in his 70s who uses a motorized wheelchair to get around the neighborhood. He said the Hanover Street station – where Ladder 1 and Engine 8 are housed -- has responded to the man's apartment in the past, and that the man is capable of standing to get in and out of his wheelchair.

The man's identity was not released. He was taken to a Boston hospital for treatment.

Mullane said there is no protective fencing around the seawall where the man's wheelchair was found. He said he asked the man how he fell out of his wheelchair and over the seawall.

"I asked him what happened and he said he just didn't know,'' Mullane said, adding that the man told him, " 'I just fell in.' ''

Mullane said he does not know what would have happened if the man had somehow not discovered the submerged piece of timber after he fell into the harbor.

"If he slipped off of that, he would have been in over his head, that's for sure,'' Mullane said.

Mullane, who turns 39 tomorrow, said he was treated for immersion in the water at the scene. Higgins, whom Mullane said was 50 years old, was taken to a Boston hospital for treatment of cuts.

Said Mullane: "I don’t think I've done a rescue like that before. We were just happy to get him out.''