A parent of one of the boys pulled last week from a collapsed snow cave is praising local rescuers’ efforts in the wake of the ordeal.
Dennis Wooster, of Windham, said “words can’t express” how grateful he is for the quick, effective response of Windham public safety officials after his son and a friend were buried under a 14-foot pile of snow for six hours during the Valentine’s Day blizzard.
The two boys were trapped, completely unable to move, after a plow truck closed in the entrance to a snow cave they had dug in a parking lot at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish on Route 302 in North Windham.
Windham Fire Chief Charlie Hammond said Christopher Stearns, 18, and Benjamin Wooster, 17, were treated for hypothermia at Maine Medical Center after they were rescued by a “bucket brigade of snow shovels.”
With classes at Windham High School canceled last Wednesday because of the snowstorm, the teens were hanging out at Stearns’ house on Shore Road near the church. At around 1 p.m. they trudged through the snow to the nearby church to continue working on a snow fort in one corner of the parking lot. Stearns had begun working on the fort a few days prior to the incident, and the newly fallen snow gave the teens a chance to improve their project. Both were inside the hollow chamber when a snowplow compressed the pile, collapsing the snow cave and trapping the teens.
According to Wooster’s father, Dennis, the two boys were trapped about 5 feet apart in the pile. Despite their proximity, they were not able to communicate with each other because of the compression of the snow.
“They couldn’t hear each other even if they hollered,” Wooster said.
Wooster said air pockets located above their heads provided air the teens needed to breath throughout their ordeal, which lasted a total of about six hours.
According to Wooster, Wednesday afternoon was a flurry of activity that “fortunately ended with a happy ending.”
At 1 p.m., he said, the boys left the Stearns’ home on Shore Road to build the snow fort in back of the church. At 2 p.m., fire officials estimate, the boys got trapped in the snow pile. At 3 p.m., Ben Wooster’s mother unsuccessfully called her son’s cell phone. At 4 p.m., Dennis Wooster called his son and was still not able to make contact.
“We couldn’t get a hold of him. He may be 17, but my wife and I demand to know where our children are at all times,” Wooster said.
At that point, Wooster became concerned for his son’s safety. At about 5 p.m., he called Brian Stearns, father of Christopher Stearns, and the two of them drove to the church parking lot to discover the lot had been plowed. They drove to the church on a hunch because Chris Stearns had shown his father the snow fort the previous evening.
“We both believe in being active in knowing what our kids are doing. It was very fortunate Chris showed his dad that snow fort,” Wooster said.
Not able to find the boys themselves, and presuming they were buried under the pile, Wooster called Windham police at about 6 p.m.
“Pay attention to what you’re kids are saying to you,” said Fire Chief Hammond. He said the father’s help, which was crucial in saving the two kids from freezing to death, was only possible because of attentive parenting.
“If this parent had said, ‘yeah, ‘I’ll look later,’ he wouldn’t have been able to point out which snow pile in the parking lot to look in,” said Hammond.
Starting the recovery effort at 6:05 p.m., Hammond oversaw a digging operation that combined the efforts of firefighters, police and state troopers. Two EMTs and two ambulances were present, and the public works department provided a bucket loader. The snow pile was more than 14 feet tall and Hammond said the rescuers dug out a wide band at body level.
Shovelers in the front would scoop out snow and place it behind them. A second row of workers would take the snow and spread it out behind them so it would not accumulate in a pile.
“It was like a bucket brigade of snow shovels,” said Hammond.
Just before 8 p.m. firefighter and EMT Travis Gibson found Wooster a little more than six feet into the pile trapped in a prone position parallel to the ground.
Hammond said he was relieved when Wooster, the first rescued boy, was found alive and able to walk.
“I thought, ‘well, we’re in a church parking lot and someone’s looking down on us and smiling,'” he said.
Hammond said Wooster was fed an intravenous drip of hot fluids for hydration and to raise his body temperature. When he was able to speak, he told them where to find his friend.
Hammond said a pant leg was found 15 minutes later. It was Stearns locked in a standing position. A rescuer said the flesh under the pant leg felt cold to the touch.
“We began to get nervous,” said Hammond.
Then the foot moved.
“Everyone started with a renewed faith,” said Hammond.
Dennis Wooster and Brian Stearns accompanied their children to Maine Medical Center, each in their own ambulance. Wooster was released the next day; Stearns stayed two days. This week, the Wooster family is relaxing at home while the Stearns are off for February vacation.
“It was a very innocent accident. The plow driver didn’t do anything wrong; our boys didn’t do anything wrong. I was just very glad to see them,” Wooster said.
Wooster thanks the responding fire and police and public works crews for working together to rescue the buried teens.
“This was a very, very serious situation, and rescuers didn’t hesitate at all. It just shows the dedication of our local police and fire departments,” Wooster said. “No words can express what we feel.”
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