By Doug Harlow
The Kennebec Journal
THE FORKS, Maine — Fire Chief Brian Rowe died Friday night while on his way to a fatal snowmobile accident near Moxie Pond, local fire officials and the spokesperson for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said Saturday.
Rowe, 66, of West Forks, suffered a critical medical episode and died, department spokesperson Deborah Turcotte said in a release. Rowe was a retired sheriff’s deputy for the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department and a Vietnam veteran, local officials said.
Rowe was driving his truck en route to a snowmobile accident, in which Jason Dodge, 37, of West Gardiner, died of head injuries.
Dodge was killed after slamming his snowmobile into a 9-inch thick fir tree, on a groomed trail in The Forks, Turcotte said.
The Forks Fire and Rescue emergency medical personnel, who were on their way to the snowmobile incident, came to Rowe’s aid and performed life-saving measures, but those efforts were unsuccessful, according to Turcotte.
Gordon Berry, owner of Berry’s General Store in West Forks and captain of the combined Forks, West Forks and Caratunk Fire Department, said he was with Rowe just a few minutes before he died. Berry said Rowe probably died of a heart attack.
“I talked to him a couple of minutes on the way into the snowmobile accident,” Berry said by phone Saturday afternoon. “He was setting in his truck; laying back in his truck and he was breathing real hard. We just gave him some oxygen and figured he was going to be all right.
“He was real short on air; the paramedics from the Bingham ambulance gave him oxygen and it didn’t seem to help him much. He just passed on, that’s all.”
Berry said he took the rescue sled, along with an attendant from the Bingham-based Upper Kennebec Valley Ambulance Service to the snowmobile accident scene. Another attendant remained with Rowe.
The snowmobile incident occurred at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Interconnected Trail System (ITS) 87, a groomed trail near Boise Road and Moxie Pond in The Forks. The Maine Warden Service was notified at 10:15 p.m.
Dodge was the last operator in a group of five snowmobilers, including his brother, who were traveling from a family camp in Caratunk, according to Turcotte.
Dodge, who was wearing a helmet, failed to negotiate a left turn while operating his late model Ski-Doo 800 Renegade on the icy trail and hit the tree head-on. He suffered head trauma and internal injuries, and was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical personnel from The Forks Fire and Rescue.
The incident remains under investigation. Wardens Tom McKenney, Jared Herrick and Jonathan Parker, and Sgt. Christopher Simmons, responded to the incident.
Rowe, who is survived by his wife, Judy, was well known and well liked, Berry said.
“He was a great guy,” Berry said. “He was always willing to help somebody out if he could, just that kind of a fellow, that’s all.”
Berry said Rowe moved to West Forks about 15 years ago, but had been coming to the area for 30 years or more.
Berry’s son Brandon, also a member of the fire department, said Rowe will be remembered for wanting to help people.
“He passed on the way into the snowmobile accident,” Brandon Berry said from the general store Saturday afternoon.
“We got called out to a snowmobile accident and he was on the way, just trying to help people like he always did — he passed away doing it.
“He was loved by everybody in the town; did nothing but help all of us and we’re going to miss all of his storytelling. He was just a great guy all the way around. Great guy.”
The Maine Warden Service is reminding snowmobilers to use caution when out on snowmobile trails. Between 20 and 26 inches of snow remain in the northern woods. The trails, however, are showing signs of spring, Turcotte said.
Obstacles such as roots and rocks and open-water crossings are showing up on trails, she said.
Also, many trails have a hard, crusty layer of ice on them.
Snowmobilers are reminded to not drink and drive, to ride at a reasonable and prudent speed for conditions, and to wear a helmet.
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