Ladder

"Even at his age, Dad insisted on doing all of the house repairs," said Ruth Blesz of Collingdale. "There's no way anyone could convince him not to climb a ladder. He was a stubborn Irishman. " The reference was to her father, John J. "Nukey" Kelly, 76, who was killed Tuesday in a fall from a wooden ladder outside his home on East Madison Avenue, Clifton Heights. Family members said Mr. Kelly was attempting to repair a section of roof flashing on the two-story twin home when the ladder snapped in half.

Karl Phillip Alexander, 56, a giant among Philadelphia firefighters for 30 years and a master of skills, died of pancreatic cancer last Sunday at home in East Mount Airy. He was diagnosed five months ago - three months before his planned retirement. At 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds, Mr. Alexander made everyone - fellow firefighters, wife, daughter, son, friends, and those he saved - feel safe. Consider the battles he fought in addition to major fires and disasters: He was severely burned while fighting a fire in 1991 because of faulty bunker gear and returned to work while undergoing burn treatments; recovered from colon cancer in 1993; underwent open-heart surgery in 1997; and endured brutal pancreatic cancer with grace as he shrank to 130 pounds before he died.

Manny Legace stopped 30 shots for his fourth career shutout, and Steve Thomas had two goals and an assist to lift the Detroit Red Wings, 6-0, over the visiting New York Islanders last night. Brendan Shanahan, Chris Chelios, Kris Draper and Brett Hull scored the other Detroit goals. Shanahan's goal was his 541st, tying him with Hall of Famer Stan Mikita for 20th place on the NHL career list. Hull's was his 727th goal, moving him within four of Marcel Dionne in third place. In other games: At Anaheim, Sergei Fedorov's third-period goal lifted the Mighty Ducks, 4-3, over Chicago.

Lou Mallon's job is to ride the tail of the dragon. Perched in a tiny cab near the very end of a hook-and-ladder truck, the firefighter steers the rear wheels, threading the truck through narrow streets, bouncing over trolley tracks and struggling sometimes to make hairpin turns in a hurry. A man with muscular arms and steady nerves, Mallon is a tillerman, assigned to one of the city's 19 tiller-ladder trucks. He works out of the House of Dragons, the firehouse at 10th and Cherry Streets nicknamed for its Chinatown neighborhood.

After hearing screams for help, neighbors rescued a woman and her 2-year- old son from a burning rowhouse in West Philadelphia yesterday morning, minutes before firefighters arrived. The screams were coming from an alley behind a row of houses in the 5900 block of Warrington Street, where Kimberly Underwood, 23, was straddling a rear second-floor windowsill, struggling to maintain her balance as dark columns of smoke billowed toward the sky. "I looked out the window and could see the lady dangling out," said Michael King, who lives two houses away and who called 911 to report the fire, which broke out at 9:20 a.m. "She was covered with blood from punching out the window.

If prevailing wisdom indicates that people should sit down before they receive bad news, a Chester County Court case suggests that bearers of ill tidings should heed that advice as well. James Apgar's reasons for firing an employee on Aug. 24, 1999, may have been well-grounded, but he was not. Apgar, a supervisor for Wesco Distribution Inc., was standing on top of a ladder at the company's Swedesford Road location in Tredyffrin Township when he told Antonio Albright that he was fired.

Shelby Neely overcame a lifelong fear to do what firefighters, police and animal wardens wouldn't. The 38-year-old Haverford veterinarian, who has a fear of heights, climbed a 45-foot ladder last Monday to save an orange tabby cat stuck in an old oak tree in the 700 block of Belmont Avenue throughout the first storm of the winter. "When I got there and saw him, my heart stopped," Neely said. "The cat was at the end of the branch on this huge tree. I thought, 'This cat is dead if no one can get up there.

To prevent problems from piling up in this coming winter's harsh weather, take a good look at your rain gutters now while the weather makes it possible. A little preventive maintenance can save you a lot of money and hassle later. For example, are your gutters clean and clear? If you don't feel like getting up on a ladder, check them by using a garden hose to spray water on your roof above the gutters. If the water doesn't seem to flow well (or at all), you probably have a blockage.

By definition, a man is supposed to be handy. I'm going to admit it right off, I'm not. If I bang a nail, it's definitely going to bend. If I saw a piece of wood, there's going to be a lot of frayed wood and nerves by the time I finish. Whenever I open a can of paint, half of it winds up on the garage floor. If I put oil in my car, some of it inevitably spills on a hose or some piece of hot metal. For a brief period afterward, I drive around with so much smoke coming out from under the hood of my car that other drivers think my engine's on fire.

Auction-goers can get glimpses of the bygone days of life in the slow lane next weekend with suburban sales offering such items as a library ladder and collections of marbles and tea strainers. The library ladder is a highlight of Briggs Auction's sale of fine and decorative arts beginning at 5 p.m. next Friday at the gallery at 1347 Naamans Creek Rd., Garnet Valley. Library ladders - and home libraries themselves - are going the way of the buggy whip, as floor-to-ceiling bookshelves get shorter and their contents give way to e-books.