Maine Wardens pulls off heroic helicopter rescue of boy who fell 60 feet breaking leg

TOWNSHIP 6 NORTH OF WELD, Maine - The Maine Warden Service, with the assistance of several other organizations and the Maine Forest Service, rescued a teenage boy who had fractured his leg when he fell 60 feet down Tumbledown Mountain Sunday afternoon.

Kyle Lund, 15, of Dixfield, was hiking off-trail with a friend on a steep section of Tumbledown Mountain near the Loop Trail when he slipped and fell 60 feet down the mountain, sustaining a compound fracture of his left leg around 1:50 p.m.

Game wardens, along with volunteers from Franklin Search and Rescue, Mahoosuc Mountain Rescue, and members of the Weld, Wilton, and Carthage Fire Departments, hiked up over a mile to where Lund had fallen, and due to the severity of the fracture, made the decision to fly Lund out by a Maine Forest Service helicopter.

Wardens and emergency service personnel stabilized Lund, then secured him to a backboard and carried him up the mountain a short distance to an open area. The Maine Forest Service Helicopter arrived on scene and was able to lower a crew down to the scene on the mountain, and then lifted the victim up into the hovering helicopter a little after 5 p.m.

The Maine Forest Service then flew the boy about two miles, landed, and transferred him into a waiting NorthStar Ambulance, which first took him to Franklin Memorial Hospital, and then later transported him to Maine Medical Center where he was treated.