By Pat Grossmith
The New Hampshire Union Leader
MERRIMACK, N.H. — The late David R. Loiselle was a craftsman who loved building things, and cherished his privacy, so he would not be happy about the widespread attention his death has garnered because local firefighters, who responded after he fell from a ladder while shingling his garage’s roof, returned to finish the job.
“Boy, that was really something,” said his stepson Matt McSorley, 47, of Litchfield.
Loiselle, 67, fell off a ladder Wednesday while reshingling the two-stall, two-story gambrel garage he built in the late 1980s. His wife Cecilia found him in a fetal position inside the garage and called 911.
Three firefighters arrived — Capt. Brian Dubreuil, Ryan Thomas and Brennan McCarthy — to find Mrs. Loiselle performing CPR on her husband. A second trio of firefighters — paramedic Bill Pelrine, EMT Marissa Jimenez and Firefighter Melissa Winter — then arrived on scene, according to Fire Capt. Rick Gagne.
Firefighters took over doing CPR and Loiselle was taken to St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua where he later died.
McSorley said the emergency room physician did not believe the fall is what killed his stepfather, but that some kind of medical event preceded it.
McSorley was at work — he is the New Hampshire Sunday News sports editor — when he got word. About an hour after he and his mother returned from the hospital, he said three firefighters showed up, parking their firetruck in the street in front of the house.
The captain, McSorley didn’t catch his name, politely asked McSorley and his mother if it would be OK for them to put some tarps on the roof. He told them it was going to be raining in the next few days and it would cause a lot of water damage.
“Absolutely, please,” McSorley said, thanking the firefighter profusely. Taking care of the roof wasn’t on his or his mother’s minds. They were in the process of notifying family of his stepfather’s death.
McSorley later looked out to see three more firefighters and several neighbors as well working on the roof. The captain was up on the scaffolding using McSorley’s dad’s pneumatic nail gun to nail the shingles onto the roof.
McSorley stood outside just watching them work. He said it was obvious they had roofing experience. “They weren’t fumbling around. They were right on top of it and just matter of fact about it,” he said.
Gagne said the firefighters have done work like that in the past at second jobs, although none are doing it now. “They have the skill,” he said.
McSorley said when they finished the roof, about 9 p.m. that night, they took down the scaffolding and the ladders and put it all away.
“It was first class stuff all the way,” he said. “It just demonstrates that when you are at your lowest, people will come out of the woodwork and pitch in for you.”
His stepfather, he said, was a craftsman and a genius at building things. He owned his own construction company in the 1970s, and always worked in the construction trades. More recently, he was a truck driver for a Bedford construction company. He loved building things and had an air compressor, generator and a big John Deere tractor, a three-wheeler with a bucket.
“He loved to fix and build things and had remodeled the house,” McSorley said.
There was no question he was going to re-roof the garage and that he knew how to do it, he said. “He was truly a genius with his hands. There was nothing he couldn’t do and he did it all so really well.”
Loiselle and his wife only retired just two weeks ago.
“That hurts,” McSorley said. The couple though, had a great 36 years together.
“They made each other happy,” he said.
What Loiselle would not be happy about, McSorley said, is all the attention because he treasured his privacy.
“He would have hated being at the center of this but I think because it made life easier for his wife, and he loved her dearly, that as much as it would have driven him crazy that somebody finished his roof, that it would comfort him to know they had taken that burden off her,” he said.
Gagne said firefighters aren’t looking for recognition.
“It’s horrible what happened,” he said. “Any time we can alleviate the stress and pressure on the family so they can deal with a tragic event and take something off their plate, it’s the least we can do.”
He said the department has been receiving calls from television stations and news media from all over the country.
“The guys are getting tons of calls about it to the point they are feeling uncomfortable,” he said. There were so many calls that the department has turned down any more interviews, Gagne said.
The funeral is planned for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of Mercy Church, 16 Baboosic Lake Road. There are no calling hours. The family asks that in lieu of flowers memorial donations be made to the Merrimack Fire and Rescue Department.
Copyright 2016 The New Hampshire Union Leader