Man hurt in roof fall

A 37-YEAR-OLD Great Yarmouth man was today taken to Ipswich Hospital with suspected serious back injuries after falling 20 feet from a house roof.

Craig Mattless an employee for Norwich-based roofing firm Heat Care Installation was on a ladder in Clare Avenue, Woodbridge, when the accident happened.

There was no one holding the ladder when he fell off the roof at about 9am before a paramedic arrived at the scene within five minutes.

Brian Watling, 50, of Woodbridge, was across the road when the accident happened. He said: "We heard a scream and a thud, I turned round and the man was lying in the bushes. All I heard was a loud thump. The man knew he had done something to his back and he said he had hurt it before.

"The paramedic quickly arrived and they knew their stuff and were cutting the man's clothes off. The man was joking that he would miss Norwich City's match tonight and we were trying to keep him good-humoured.

"He said he had got to the top of the ladder but a gust of wind caused him to fall about 20ft.

"He kept saying thanks and apologised to the ambulance people for calling them out."

Mr Mattless was passed a mobile phone and informed his mother and brother of the accident.

He had been working for the company for nine months and was with one other person in Woodbridge.

Richard Green, 36, of Norwich, said: "The first I knew of it was when someone shouted at me saying he had fallen off the ladder. I was inside the loft laying loft installation at the time."

Paramedics and an ambulance were there for 30 minutes before the man was taken to hospital. A spokesman for the East Anglian Ambulance Trust said: "The man had back pain and ankle injuries and was being treated for a potentially serious spinal injury."