SABATTUS — Fire Chief Mark Veilleux on Monday credited a good Samaritan with helping him rescue an injured snowmobiler on Sabattus Lake on Sunday.
Veilleux and others from the department responded to a trail near Martin’s Point about 3 p.m. for a report of a snowmobile crash, but Veilleux had no way to get to the injured teen.
“Some good Samaritan lent me his four-wheeler,” the chief said. “There was a bystander there who asked me if I knew how to use it. I said yes, and he let me.”
Veilleux loaded up his emergency gear, got onto the lake, evaluated the 16-year-old’s condition and brought him to shore on a rescue sled donated to the department about 10 years ago by the Sabattus Mountaineers snowmobile club.
“It doesn’t get a lot of use, but when it does, it’s worth its weight in gold,” he said.
The ATV proved valuable, too, but Veilleux said that he never got a chance to thank the good Samaritan who loaned it to him.
“I would like to give him credit, but I didn’t know who he was until I got back with his machine, and he wasn’t around,” the chief said. “I just dropped it off and went about my business. I never got a chance to say thank you to him.”
Also assisting Sunday were members of the Wales Fire Department with snowmobiles and ATVs, an example of the strong working relationship between the departments.
“We respond with Wales quite often, we have a very good working relationship,” Veilleux said. “They have snowmobiles and some of the members have ATVs that they use to respond to these incidents. On the flip side, we don’t have that in Sabattus, but we have a rescue sled, which aids them in getting victims off the ice, or out of the scene.
“We have things that can be towed, and they have things that can tow us,” he said.
While cleaning up after the rescue, both departments responded to an unattended campfire in a wooded area off a snowmobile trail in Wales.
(Photo by Deputy Chief Brandon Siderio of the Wales Fire Department)
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