A Chester County man's hike to Tennessee on the Appalachian Trail ended abruptly when his hand was partially severed in a campfire accident, according to a fire officer who oversaw the rescue operation late Wednesday night on Hawk Mountain in Albany Township. 
 
 The 34-year-old man from Exton used his cellphone to call 9-1-1 about 10:20 p.m. Wednesday and told dispatchers his hand was blown off while trying to start a campfire.The victim, whose name officials wouldn't release, was trying to start the fire using black powder, Chief Ethan Kunkel of Kempton Fire Company said Thursday."When he sparked it, the powder exploded and partially amputated his hand," he said.The man was eventually flown by medical helicopter to Lehigh Valley Hospital, near Allentown, following a nearly two-hour rescue operation involving about 30 personnel, including those from Hamburg EMS and Kempton Fire Company in Berks and the Lynnport, New Tripoli and Germansville fire companies in Lehigh County.Information on his medical condition could not be obtained from the hospital.It took rescue personnel about 25 minutes to reach the victim on the trail, trudging about a half-mile from Hawk Mountain Road in 18-inch-deep snow.Fortunately, Kempton Fire Company's medical director is an emergency room physician at Lehigh Valley Hospital as well as an active volunteer, Dr. Eric Schneider, and his wife, Heather, a nurse and emergency medical technician, rendered the initial aid."People have no idea how lucky they are in this area (north of Interstate 78)," Kunkel said. "The first two people that went in and located the fellow is actually an ER doctor from Lehigh Valley Hospital and his wife. They were the first ones in and were able to put a tourniquet on to control the bleeding."The second crew included an officer who works as a MedEvac flight nurse but was off duty from that job, he added.Once the man was stabilized, it took about 45 minutes to take him down the mountain to an ambulance."We carried him by Stokes basket for a bit, and then we deployed a narrow rubber pontoon used for ice and water rescues from New Tripoli," Kunkel said. "We pulled him a short distance until the UTV (an off-road vehicle similar to an ATV) from Germansville arrived and took him the rest of the way to an ambulance."The ambulance crew transported him to the helicopter landing site at Kempton New Church School about 3 miles away.Kunkel said the information he received is the man was starting his hike to Tennessee on the Appalachian Trail near Kempton.Contact Steve Henshaw: 610-371-5024 or shenshaw@readingeagle.com 

 A hiker on the Appalachian Trail near the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary lost his left hand Wednesday night in an explosion that was set off as he tried to start a campfire, officials said. 
 
 The accident happened 10:20 p.m. on the snowy rocks a half-mile south of Hawk Mountain Road, where the 34-year-old man had just begun what was supposed to be a trail hike all the way to Tennessee. 
 
 "He was trying to start a fire and ended up grabbing the wrong thing out of his backpack," said Ethan Kunkel, deputy chief of the Kempton Fire Company. "What he grabbed was an explosive and it blew his hand off." 
 
 The explosive was black powder, Kunkel said. 
 
 The hiker from Exton, Chester County, was not identified. He was flown early Thursday to Lehigh County Hospital-Cedar Crest after 21 rescuers from two counties brought him down from the mountain. 
 
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 Kunkel said he did not see the hiker's injury, but rescuers told him the man's hand was so badly damaged it was not likely that doctors would try to reattach it. 
 
 "From what I understand, it was in pieces, shattered," he said. 
 
 The rescue operation began when the hiker, who was by himself, called 911 with his cellphone to report he had lost a hand and was bleeding badly. 
 
 "Our people went in on foot," Kunkel, who coordinated the rescue, said Thursday. "It's rocky terrain in there. There was 18 inches of snow on the mountain. And it was dark. Last night, they actually could not see the rocks." 
 
 But help arrived quickly, he said. 
 
 "The first two people to arrive were from our fire department, and one is an ER doctor and the other is his wife, who is an EMT," Kunkel said. "They put the tourniquet on to control the bleeding and they started to check his vital signs." 
 
 The Kempton rescuers were joined by crews from Lynnport, New Tripoli and Germansville fire companies and the Hamburg EMS ambulance crew. Nineteen men and two women climbed a half-mile of rocks together to bring the hiker back. 
 
 "They carried him [by stretcher] about a third of the way out," Kunkel said. "Then we got a small, inflatable pontoon boat in there, which is usually used for water rescue. We put our Stokes basket on that, so we could pull him across the snow instead of carry him." 
 
 A utility terrain vehicle eventually picked him up and completed the rescue. The hiker was taken to Kempton New Church on Hawk Mountain Road. At 12:25 a.m., he was placed on a medical helicopter, which took him to the hospital. 
 
 The hiker remained at LVH on Thursday night, but information on his condition was not available. 
 
 Kunkel said the hiker had ample supplies and appeared to have been well-prepared for a long hike. But on the same night he started out on a 600-mile journey, one misstep stopped him before he hiked a mile.
– A hiker wasn't even one mile into what was supposed to be a 600-mile trek on the Appalachian Trail taking him from Pennsylvania to Tennessee when an accident cut his journey short—and cost him his hand. The unidentified 34-year-old man was apparently using black powder in an attempt to start a campfire Wednesday night when the powder exploded after he attempted to spark it, the Reading Eagle reports. "It blew his hand off," Ethan Kunkel, deputy chief of the Kempton Fire Company, tells the Morning Call. The Pennsylvania man, who was near the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary at the time of the accident, called 911 with his cellphone. It took 21 rescuers to get him down from the mountain; there were 18 inches of snow at the time. Rescuers went in on foot, climbing a half-mile of rocks over 25 minutes to retrieve the hiker, who was then carried about a third of the way out on a stretcher, then pulled across the snow on an inflatable pontoon boat, then driven the rest of the way out before being taken via helicopter to a hospital, where he remained Thursday night. Kunkel says the hiker's hand was not expected to be reattached: "From what I understand, it was in pieces, shattered."