York City Fire/Rescue Service Lt. Chad Deardorff, bottom center, works with other rescue responders to help a man who impaled himself Wednesday on a fence at the York Fair. Fire and fair officials said the man was trying to scale the fence along Carlisle Avenue to get to the concert inside.associated press

YORK — A man trying to enter a rock concert at a fair impaled his thigh on a wrought-iron fence and underwent surgery to have a two-foot section of fence removed from his leg.

Aaron C. Fry, 19, of Washington Borough, Lancaster County, used both hands to steady himself atop the fence, 12 feet in the air, for 45 minutes Wednesday evening, until crews working on ladder trucks and a fork lift could cut the fence and lower him to the ground.

"He had to actually try to hold himself up there," said John Kottmyer, assistant chief of York's city fire and rescue service.

Rescuers could not remove Fry from the fence because doing so could have risked serious blood loss or death, said David Nichols, chief of the West Manchester Township Fire Department.

"Medical protocol is you don't ... remove an impalement because it may have severed an artery or nicked an artery and it could be holding back that blood," Nichols said.

Nichols said the man underwent surgery Wednesday night at York Hospital and was reported in stable condition on Thursday. No police charges were filed.

York Fair vice president Gene Schenck said the man and several friends were headed to the Bad Boys of Rock concert featuring the bands Hinder, Papa Roach and Buckcherry.