An 8-year-old boy was rescued from a tree in Woodbridge thanks to the town's fire department.
The boy was about 50 feet high, nearly 4 feet away from the top of the tree on Richard Sweet Road, the fire department said.
It took about 25 minutes to get the boy safely out of the tree, fire officials said. After being checked by paramedics, he was released to his parents.
Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Department said they used a new 100-foot tower truck that was purchased through donations of about $70,000. The truck was put into service this week.
“If we didn't have this truck, we would have had to call a neighboring town in and that would have added to the delay of getting the boy out of the tree," Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Department Chief Sean Rowland said.
NBC Connecticut spoke exclusively with the 8-year-old boy’s father, Daniel Del Prete, on Thursday.
“He was on the tree about a week ago about 15 feet up,” Del Prete said. "My wife told him that was high enough and he let her know he was trying to get all the way to the top.”
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Just before dinner Wednesday night, somehow, he accomplished that tall task.
“I think he had tunnel vision, wanted to look up, only looked up and never thought about climbing down,” Del Prete said.
Del Prete is a New Haven firefighter.
“The instinct of protectiveness and getting up that tree as fast as I could to help him climb down,” he said, “and then being logical enough to realize that I can’t its above me and there’s professionals out there that will be here to help him.”
A day after the rescue, the tire tracks from the Woodbridge fire truck are still visible on the Del Prete’s lawn.
“I can’t thank the Woodbridge fire department enough for their quick response,” Del Prete said.
Now his son, also named Daniel, has quite the story to share with his third grade classmates.
“He’s fine,” Del Prete said, “he was excited to tell his friends at school and share with them they should be aware of where they are and what they’re doing and don’t always just get head first into something.”
