A would-be Santa Claus partying with pals on the roof of a Chinatown apartment building had to be rescued by firefighters after he got stuck in the building’s chimney Saturday morning.
The victim, identified by sources as 28-year-old Geoffroy Massuelle, got stuck 13 feet down the chimney of the seven-story building on the corner of Canal and Allen Sts. about 7:35 a.m.
“I think he did something he regretted,” FDNY Battalion Chief John Spillane, who oversaw the rescue operation. “I think he was more embarrassed than anything else He realized he couldn’t get out without our help.”
Massuelle, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, was drinking on the roof with his 25-year-old girlfriend and a pal who lives in the building.
One source said he went down the chimney after he and his chums got locked out on the roof.
As he descended, the 2-foot by 18-inch opening shrunk to about half that size, officials said.
His girlfriend followed him down the chimney and also got stuck — but managed to get herself out with just a bruise to her knee, officials said.
Their friend called for help. Luckily, the firehouse for Ladder Co. 6 is located right next door.
Firefighters went into a seventh-floor apartment used as a business and bashed in a bathroom wall to get to the chimney from the inside, Spillane said.
But Massuelle ended up climbing a rope ladder other firefighters dropped down the chimney from the roof.
“We got a good amount of the brick out when they got a hold of him from above,” Spillane said.
Massuelle was treated at Bellevue Hospital for cuts and scratches and released.
A half-empty bottle of Tequila was found on the roof next to the chimney along with a collection of beer bottles.
Signs forbid people from going onto the building’s roof, landlord Yvonne Psang angrily pointed out.
“How could you not see the signs?” she asked. “He’s a young man and the views are good up here. They’re crazy you know?”
With Ellen Moynihan
