THE FORKS, Maine — A Bangor man who fell from large rocks in The Forks Saturday was rescued by Maine Wardens and local EMS and taken by LifeFlight of Maine to a Bangor hospital.
Clayford Cabilas, 30, had just hiked the Mosquito Mountain Trail with a friend, 27-year-old Precious Magallanes of the Philippines when they climbed onto large rocks to get a picture at about 2:45 p.m., Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokesman Mark Latti said in a release.
Cabilas lost his balance and fell, causing one of the rocks to shift and pinning his arm and leg between rocks.
Magallanes attempted to free Cabilas and repeatedly tried to reach 911 but was unable to connect due to poor cell service, Latti said.
Just more than an hour later, Cabilas reached 911, and the Maine Warden Service, emergency medical personnel from West Forks, Upper Kennebec Valley, and NorthStar ambulance, Somerset County Sheriff's deputies, and LifeFlight of Maine went to the scene.
"From what we could observe at first, his arm was pinned underneath the rock. He had no feeling at all. He couldn't feel anything that we were doing to his hand. When we touched it, it was very blue," said West Forks Fire Rescue Director, Heather Sylvester.
Finding Cabilas pinned with a fractured arm and leg, a head injury, and becoming increasingly hypothermic, crews used the Jaws of Life and airbags to move and secure the rock and free Cabilas.
"Once we formulated the plan, it wasn't terribly difficult to get him out. We had airbags on scene initially. We called out to bring in our cordless Jaws of Life which ended up being key in getting the young man out in a timely fashion," said West Forks Fire Chief, Tom Sylvester.
He was taken by Lifeflight of Maine to Northern Lights Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Central Maine Power said it owns the land where the incident happened.
At last check, the Maine Warden Service said the man is expected to recover.