40‑year‑old man rescued after getting stuck in Connecticut playground slide

A Connecticut man is likely breathing a sigh of relief thanks to a team of firefighters and other emergency personnel who rescued him after he became stuck inside a tube slide at a children’s playground on a hot August day

A Connecticut man is likely breathing a sigh of relief thanks to a team of firefighters and other emergency personnel who rescued him after he became stuck inside a tube slide at a children’s playground on a hot August day.

Rescuers found the 40-year-old man, who has not been publicly identified, “wedged feet and head first down the slide” while “stuck in the middle portion” when they responded to a call just after 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Northeast Elementary School playground in Vernon, Connecticut, according to a statement from the Vernon Fire Department.

Vernon Emergency Services personnel administered oxygen to the man, who was “in extreme discomfort” while inside the slide amid the day’s “hot temperatures,” the fire department said.

Firefighters created “ventilation” to help “cool the space” where the man was stuck while they worked to free him.

Using extrication tools, firefighters removed a portion of the slide to reach the man, the statement said. They used ropes attached to one fire engine’s aerial ladder as “a high point to stabilize the section of slide” that firefighters were removing.