Man Buried Under Snow While Clearing Roof In Peterborough, NH
PETERBOROUGH, N.H. (CBS) -- A Peterborough, New Hampshire man was buried under a solid two feet of snow for more than three hours when he was trying to clear an ice dam on his roof Sunday.
Drew Mullins was using a snow rake to remove the snow from a metal roof when he created an avalanche that caused snow to pour down on top of him, throwing him on his back. "I heard a kind of snap and just turned around to see the snow coming off," Mullins told WBZ-TV.
He says he was already standing in several inches of snow and couldn't get out of the way fast enough. He was able to free his left leg and use it like a "shovel" to kick snow, but his arms were pinned.
Mullins says he was breathing so heavily he melted some snow around his face and opened up a four inch air pocket to yell for help. "I told myself you're not going out this way. I kept thinking of my wife and two daughters."
His wife Deanna says she left with their daughters only ten minutes before the accident around 2:00 p.m. When they returned at 5:30 she says it was odd to see the car in the driveway and no one in the home because Mullins was supposed to be at work Sunday afternoon. "I just heard the faintest thing at that moment, then I heard it again and I knew it was him," said Deanna Mullins.
It was her husband's faint cries for help, but she could barely dig at the deep snow herself to free him and could barely see his face. "It was a total panic and I'll never forget hearing him," she said.
A 911 call brought firefighters to the scene and it took eleven of them working for 20 minutes to finally excavate Mullins from the snow. Mullins says he was sure he would make it out with will and determination.
"I tried to remain as calm as I could and get a sense of where I was," he says. "Thankfully I did land on my back or things could have been different."
