No Way to Go but Up : Rescue: Firefighters pull man from chimney where he became wedged during a wee-hours visit to his ex-girlfriend’s home.

All 21-year-old Thomas M. Ngan wanted to do was get his ex-girlfriend’s attention--but not this way.

For reasons that still are not clear, Ngan tried to slip down the 22-foot-high chimney at the woman’s Gregory Street home early Wednesday. About halfway down, he got stuck.

Fire trucks--five of them--showed up. Neighbors armed with video cameras gathered outside to watch the spectacle. Television crews materialized. Even off-duty firefighters, hearing about what happened, drove by to catch a glimpse of the rescue.

Almost two hours went by with Ngan wedged in the sooty, 12-by-18-inch passageway before he was finally freed at 4:30 a.m.

The ex-girlfriend, Claudia Leung, 26, declined to file trespassing charges. Ngan was uninjured except for scratches and bruises, and the only thing that seemed to be damaged was his ego.

Ngan, a Montebello resident who weighs 120 pounds and stands 5 feet, 7 inches tall, gave no explanation for his actions, authorities said.

“Nobody could get a straight answer out of him other than that he knows a female resident of the house,” said Don Forsyth, an Orange County Fire Department battalion chief. “He didn’t want to talk about how or why or what he was doing.”

According to Forsyth, Leung and her roommate were awakened by the sound of muffled screams in the early morning. Puzzled, they searched the house but couldn’t find the source of what appeared to be muted cries for help.

Police were called, but neither could they find out where the screams were coming from. At first, officers couldn’t even pinpoint which house the noise came from.

Nancy Hines, 36, who lives across the street from Leung, said she “heard this person screaming” from her bedroom in the rear of the house.

“The police were up and down the street looking for him, calling, ‘Where are you?’ Then they lit up the street,” she said.

Eventually, police located Ngan--stuck 12 feet down from the top of the chimney--and called in the firefighters.

Forsyth said the Fire Department has received only two other reports of people stuck in chimneys in the past 10 years. In both cases, the chimneys had to be demolished.

Frank McKenna, 59, a brick mason who also lives on Gregory Street, said his family woke him after hearing that firefighters were looking for a mason.

“What are the odds of a guy going down a chimney across the street from a mason?” McKenna asked later.

McKenna climbed up on the roof and peered down the chimney. He saw that the clay flue was “pretty slick,” he said. “I think he fell right down it.”

Ngan apparently came to rest against a small ledge just over the damper, McKenna said.

“I told them it’s just as quick to pull the guy out” as to tear down the chimney, McKenna recalled.

Firefighters were initially apprehensive about trying to pull Ngan out because only one arm was free.

Thirteen firefighters eventually succeeded in freeing Ngan, using an aerial ladder with ropes, pulleys and a makeshift harness. Forsyth said it took about an hour and 15 minutes from the time the Fire Department arrived.

“He wasn’t panicking or anything, but when he came out from the chimney he was sitting on the curb and shaking,” McKenna said. “I think it was a little bit more than he bargained for.”

“What on earth could have gone through his mind?” wondered Hines. “When they brought him out, he had his glasses on . . . he was totally intact. It was hysterical. We didn’t mean to laugh. . . .”

Times staff writer Mark Landsbaum contributed to this report.