Gloucester County man falls to his death hanging holiday lights

Alan Dankel Jr. was determined to use his first weekend off in months to string white-icicle Christmas lights on his roof during the Thanksgiving holiday.

It didn't matter that he recently had a knee replacement, or that his family pleaded that he forgo the annual tradition this year. He was a man of routine - stubborn at times, his family said.

On Sunday, Dankel, 59, of Washington Township, fell to his death while decorating his home.

While his wife, Leslie, was out shopping, he climbed a short ladder to get to a lower roof and shimmied his way to a second-story roof.

He was almost finished putting up the lights, his family thinks, when he reached over to untangle a strand and fell to the driveway below.

Shortly before 5 p.m., Leslie Dankel found him and attempted CPR.

He was pronounced dead from head trauma at Kennedy University Hospital-Washington Township, police said.

"I knew he was gone. I couldn't get a pulse," Leslie, 58, said Monday at the couple's home on Shire Drive in Sewell.

They met 42 years ago on a blind date. He introduced himself as "Dank" in a voice hoarse from yelling at a homecoming game at Deptford High School, which he attended.

She went to Gateway Regional.

They celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary Nov. 2.

"He was my best friend," Leslie said. "I will be very lonely."

Washington Township Police Capt. Richard Leonard said the death "appears to be a freak accident."

Authorities in Washington Township, Evesham, and Cherry Hill say fatal holiday-related falls are rare.

Nationally, hospital emergency rooms treat about 5,800 people a year for falls related to holiday decorating, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

About 43 percent of outdoor-decorating injuries involve falls from a ladder, while 13 percent are falls from roofs, the commission said.

Dankel was 5-foot-4 and weighed about 134 pounds. A former high school wrestler, he worked at Boeing in Ridley Township as a quality-control inspector. Until last weekend, he hadn't had a day off from his job in almost three months.

"He's the hardest worker I've ever known," said his son Andrew, 29, of Elmira, N.Y. "He was just very honest."

Dankel loved his routines, his family said. He awoke early in the summers, coffee in hand, clippers in pocket, and hustled to do yard work.

Christmas decorations went up on Thanksgiving weekend.

At their mother's urging, his two adult sons asked him not to put the lights on the roof this year.

On Monday, tangled white-icicle lights still hung from the right side of the roof.

"I would rather spend the holidays with my dad," Andrew said, "than look at some lights on the roof."

A viewing will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, at Kelley Funeral Home, 125 Pitman Ave., Pitman. Services will follow at 11 at the funeral home.

Interment will be in Woodbury Memorial Park.