The man who caused a seven-hour standoff on a Bangor roof on Wednesday made an unexpected “acrobatic” leap to grab an axe from the fire department, the fire chief said.
A man climbed onto the roof of a home near 14th and Allen streets around 4 a.m. Wednesday. Bangor police later made contact with the man, who agreed to accept water, fire chief Geoffrey Low said. The man was barefoot on the metal roof, which was in direct sunlight. Temperatures hit 91 degrees Wednesday morning.
The fire department put a bottle of water on the roughly 8-inch edge surrounding the aerial basket, and extended it toward the man on the roof and got it as close as he would allow, Low said.
As the man reached to grab the water, he surprised everyone and jumped on top of the bucket, onto a ledge that is not very wide, Low said. The man then grabbed the axe secured in the bucket and jumped back to the roof, Low said.
“One, we wouldn’t have ever thought that would have happened. And two, we’re not quite sure how he made that jump and didn’t fall to the ground,” Low said. “It was very acrobatic.”
The ordeal raises questions about how the man was able to steal an axe from the Bangor Fire Department. Firefighters never expected the man to jump, and it was so outside the realm of possibility for them that they did not think to take the tools out of the basket, Low said.
“Certainly we regret that happening,” Low said. “We just thought that he would grab it off the lip and we would pull the basket back, but he did that unexpected move.”
The man was armed with a knife so the fire department did not want to put firefighters in the aerial basket, Low said.
During the standoff the man would pace around parts of the roof, crouch down near the chimney and occasionally yell expletives at people on the ground, a Bangor Daily News reporter saw.
The man did damage the home’s roof with the axe, but it’s unclear how extensive it is, Low said.
Homeowners Veronica Levesque and Peter Rairdon said city officials told them to submit an estimate of the damage for repairs to be covered.
“I feel bad for the homeowner,” Low said. “It went bad on us.”
This is the first time Low said he’s ever given someone a drink in that manner during his decades as a firefighter.
Police took the man into protective custody around 11:15 a.m., and he was taken to a local hospital for physical and mental health evaluation. He has not been criminally charged.
Levesque said the man was yelling about his drugs being in the home’s chimney when he got on the roof around 4 a.m.
