By Kiera Blessing
The Eagle-Tribune
WINDHAM, Mass. — A local firefighter and friends rescued a Connecticut man Sunday who had been struck by lightning while hiking in the White Mountains, even after he refused their help.
Scott Delaney, a lieutenant with the Windham Fire Department, was nearing the end of a 20-mile charity hike near Mount Pierce with his son-in-law and a friend at about 8 p.m. Sunday when he found 51-year-old Glen Rowland of Newtown lying on the side of the trail.
Rowland said he was struck when strong thunderstorms moved through the region Saturday evening. He made a “slow and painful attempt” to escape the woods on his own, declining help from fellow hikers on the Crawford Path, until Delaney and company refused to leave him alone, authorities said.
“He was responsive, but couldn’t move at all and was having difficulty breathing and said he was struck by lightning the night before,” Delaney, 51, said. “He wanted to stay there for the night and that just wasn’t going to happen.”
Rowland told Delaney his walking stick had been the conductor that attracted the bolt, and the electricity had passed through his hand into his body. He also explained that he had a history of heart problems.
Rowland had discarded his supplies after being unable to carry them, and was wet from the rain.
“He would have been hypothermic by the morning,” Delaney said.
Delaney, his son-in-law Stephen Simpson, 29, of Hampstead and Simpson’s friend Kyle Kenyon, 24, of Lowell carried Rowland about one mile down the trail before calling for help. Two firefighter paramedics from Windham -- Dan Doherty and Eric Hildebrandt -- who had also come out for the charity hike, had taken a different path to the base of the mountain and were waiting for Delaney, Simpson and Kenyon in the parking lot.
Delaney called his colleagues, who relayed the emergency information to the state Fish and Game Department and local emergency services. Paramedics met the four men about a half mile from the trail head and helped carry Rowland the rest of the way.
By 11 p.m., Rowland and his rescuers were back in the parking lot.
“He was very grateful, very appreciative...like anybody else, probably just didn’t want to bother anyone,” Delaney said, adding that finances played into the decision to not ask for help as well. “He thought he just needed to sleep and get some rest, but he’d done that all day and it wasn’t helping.”
An ambulance responded to the scene, but Rowland declined medical treatment.
Following 18 straight hours of hiking, Delaney, Simpson and Kenyon were eager to leave the state park.
“We just wanted to get home and have a Sam Adams,” Delaney said.
___
(c)2016 The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.)