Paraplegic man from Wyo. rescued from path of train
A paraplegic from Cheyenne who fell from his wheelchair and was unable to drag himself off railroad tracks was saved by two men who pulled him from the path of an approaching freight train in Parker City, Ind.
Jerry Hale and Dave Bragg, who were repairing a herbicide sprayer about 50 feet from the tracks, saw Tim Hammer struggling and ran to him as the train approached at about 55 mph. They grabbed Hammer by his arms and pulled him away from the tracks just seconds before the train sped past, crushing the empty wheelchair, Parker City Marshal Rex Amburn said.
“(Bragg and Hale) did not even look to see where the train was,” Amburn said. “Those guys are heroes. That’s for sure.”
Hammer, 42, has been paralyzed from his chest down since he was in a motorcycle accident 19 years ago.
He was in the town about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis with his parents for their high school reunion and was on his way to the Parker City United Methodist Church on Thursday to help his mother compile a list of alumni. As he entered the railroad crossing, the traffic arms came down and he panicked, falling from the wheelchair onto the tracks, he said.
Man, woman found dead after stand-off
A man and a woman were found dead in an apartment after a stand-off between police and the man, who was armed, Greeley police said Saturday.
Shots were heard at 5:04 p.m. from the apartment in the 100 block of 14th Avenue. When police entered, they found the woman, Sylvia Gonzales, in the bedroom and the man in the bathroom. The man was holding a gun, said Greeley police spokesman Dave Beckman.
Before the shooting, a 15-year- old boy was able to escape from the apartment, Beckman said.
The identity of the man is being withheld pending notification of relatives.
House fire leaves
family of 8 homeless
A family of eight lost their home at West 38th Avenue and Mariposa Street to a fire Saturday.
The family, at home when the fire began, heard an explosion before the fire broke out. Fire investigators are exploring reports that it may have started on the back patio, said Phil Champagne, Denver Fire Department spokesman.
Denver firefighters extinguished the fire in about 20 minutes, but they had to open the roof of the single-story brick home to put it out.
Fire investigators are trying to figure out how it began. The Red Cross was on hand to help the family find temporary shelter.
Climber hospitalized
after falling 80 feet
An ambulance took a man to St. Anthony Central Hospital after he fell 80 feet as he and his girlfriend were climbing in Clear Creek Canyon on Saturday morning.
The unidentified man and his girlfriend were climbing just west of Tunnel 2 on U.S. 6 when the man fell at about 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
A team from the Golden Fire Department performed a high- angle rescue, bringing the injured man, still conscious and breathing, about 30 feet up to the highway and a waiting ambulance.
“We have a lot of people who go rock climbing up there,” said Golden Fire Department public information officer Sabrina Henderson. “And a fair number of people … get hurt climbing there.”
Worker killed when
trench walls collapse
A 57-year-old construction worker died while digging a trench in Lake County when it caved in and buried him Saturday.
Fire and rescue personnel arrived in the Gem Valley subdivision about 11:43 a.m. after getting a call from a neighbor who found the man, whose identity has not been released, buried up to his torso, said John Ortiz, spokesman for Leadville Lake County Fire Rescue.
The man – who had been digging with a backhoe before going into the trench – was dead when rescuers arrived. They spent eight hours trying to retrieve his body because the trench he was digging kept caving in.
Rescuers were able to shore up the 8-foot-deep, 10-foot-long hole at about 7:30 p.m. and reach the body.
Woman left for dead identified by police
A Colorado Springs woman found beaten and left for dead at a construction site has been identified as Karen Lafarge, 39.
Lafarge was discovered unconscious and bloody at about 9 a.m. Thursday on a rock pile at a construction project near Fountain Boulevard and Weber Street, near downtown Colorado Springs.
She is in critical condition at a local hospital.
No arrests have been made.
The Colorado Springs Police Department is asking anyone with information about the assault to call 719-444-7673.
Paragliding fatality was Boulder man
A man who died in a paragliding accident in Aspen was identified Friday as 32-year-old Max Sullivan.
Sullivan, of Boulder, died of blunt force trauma to the head Thursday after he fell 200 to 300 feet to the ground, according to Pitkin County Coroner Steve Ayers.
Sullivan was with about a dozen other paragliders who took off from Aspen Mountain. He was supposed to land with the others in the Marolt Open Space. It was his second flight of the day.
Witnesses said Sullivan’s paraglider became locked in a spiral dive as he was preparing to land.
“He apparently did something that induced the problem with the paraglider,” said Dick Jackson, a paraglider with the group.
25 pot farms busted
from January to June
Twenty-five marijuana-growing operations were busted by the Larimer County Drug Task Force between January and June.
During the same time period last year, eight operations were dismantled by the task force.
Authorities say the increase has more to do with a greater community response in reporting the drugs than a significant increase in marijuana production.
About 1,200 marijuana plants and 40 pounds of high-grade marijuana have been seized this year, with a street value of $4,500 per pound.
The task force says the marijuana is being consumed locally and exported nationally.
Of the 25 operations, 19 were found in Fort Collins, four in unincorporated areas of the county and two in Loveland.
In many cases, sections of homes, false rooms, basements, crawl spaces and garages were being used for the sole purpose of growing pot, authorities said.
