Firefighters rescue 6-year-old boy from tree in Auburn

AUBURN, Maine — It seemed like a good idea at the time — even though his friends warned against it.

His 9-year-old neighbor, Brooklyn Brown, told him to stop. But T.J. Wing just kept climbing the 15-foot maple tree across the street from his home near the corner of Oak and Hampshire streets.

“Yeah, when someone tells him not to do something, he just does it even worse,” said T.J.’s mom, Roberta Pinkham, who emerged from her apartment to find her son’s head poking out of the top of the tree Tuesday afternoon.

Pinkham said she didn’t think much of it when neighborhood kids came to tell her that her son climbed a tree. She said her active 6-year-old son is always climbing something.

“And then, suddenly, I saw his head poking through the top branches,” Pinkham said.

She called the Auburn Fire Department to come and help her son down from the top branches of the tree, which were close to the power lines. Lt. John Roy said Wing had gotten himself up the tree, but was afraid to come down.

He and fellow firefighter Fred Haskell helped the youngster down by Haskell climbing up the narrow branches and lowering Wing to Roy, who was waiting on the ground.

Wing disagreed with Roy calling him scared.

“I climbed it,” the boy said. “It was fun. Wanna see me do it again?”

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