LIVERMORE FALLS – It’s usually a cat that firefighters are called to rescue from a tree, but this time it was a boy.

Firefighters responded to Pine Ridge Loop, off Route 106, Tuesday after a call came in that a child was stuck in a tree.

Assistant fire Chief Marvin Parker said he just happened to be driving by the area and headed to the scene.

The 12-year-old boy, 15 to 20 feet up, had his foot stuck in the crotch of a sizable hardwood tree, Parker said.

He had nailed some boards on the tree for steps so he could climb up, but once he got up there he couldn’t turn around, he said.

The boy either tried to turn or slipped and his ankle got caught. That’s when he started to panic, Parker said.

“I had him keep moving his legs for his circulation because they were starting to fall asleep,” he said.

He called for an engine with a ground ladder and when it arrived the ladder was set up on the tree and Capt. Ron Leclerc climbed and helped the boy turn around and helped him put his feet on the ladder,

The boy kept saying he couldn’t feel his legs, that they had gone numb, he added.

His parents declined NorthStar ambulance medics treatment because he was shook up, but otherwise fine once he got to the ground, Parker said.

He had a hard time walking around in the beginning because one his feet was asleep.

Parker didn’t know the child’s name, but the boy told firefighters he was not going to climb any more trees, the assistant chief said.