MANCHESTER, N.H. (WHDH) - A man in Manchester, New Hampshire had to be rescued Wednesday after getting stuck in a tree while retrieving his drone.
“According to him, he looked on YouTube this morning to find ways to tie knots and slide down from ropes,” District Chief Mike Gamache said.
Daniel LaCourse, 30, was able to scale the tree in Lafayette Park with a friend’s climbing equipment and knock his stuck drone to the ground.
But when it was time to get down, he couldn’t release a knot in the rope to lower himself.
“He got tired, he got fatigued. His legs and arms got numb. He got delirious. His friend gave us a call,” Gamache said.
The Manchester Fire Department used a ladder truck first to make sure the knot keeping LaCourse suspended 60 feet in the air wouldn’t suddenly give way.
Firefighters then hoisted him into the basket of the truck.
“He was a little bit shaken up,” Gamache said. “I asked him about his heights rescue training, and he said he had none. He had just done a little web search this morning. And I said, ‘Did that make you comfortable,’ and he said, ‘Initially.'”
After the rescue, LaCourse was able to pick the drone up off the ground. It had been stuck for two weeks.
“A fall from that height would have killed him,” Gamache said.
He learned it wasn’t worth risking his life.
“He says, ‘I’m done climbing.’ He heeded my advice and said he’d probably stay on the ground from now on. He will never climb again,” Gamache said.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)