Posted on 04/12/2009 11:33:43 AM PDT by Chet 99
Man Stuck In Tree Suffocates, Dies Rescues Are Not 'An Uncommon Deal,' Rescue Team Member Says
POSTED: 2:52 pm MST April 11, 2009 UPDATED: 7:38 pm MST April 11, 2009 PHOENIX -- A man is dead after being trapped more than 50 feet up in a palm tree, but fire officials say it probably wasn't the chainsaw wound to his leg that killed him.
The man was hired to cut palm trees at a residence on Earll Drive near 26th Place. At one point, a portion of the palm tree he was working on slid, fell down and trapped him.
The man's two coworkers climbed the tree to help him before someone called 911 an estimated 15 minutes later, according to the Phoenix Fire Department.
A technical rescue crew was dispatched, and firefighters managed to coax one of the coworkers down before climbing the tree and bringing the second down.
According to Steven Oetinger, a member of the crew that attempted the rescue, when they cleared the brush at the top of the tree and reached the victim, he was dead.
"When we got to the victim, the victim was not breathing (and) did not have a pulse," Oetinger said. "The crown of the tree was pretty much sitting on top of his lap."
A chainsaw had also severely wounded the man's leg.
"They said he had a pretty good laceration," said Battalion Five Chief Jim Walter. "They said it was at least down to the bone."
However, Walter said, "That's probably not what killed him. It was the fact that he couldn't breathe with the weight of the palm fronds on his chest."
When a crown of a palm tree falls, "you have several hundred pounds -- up to a thousand pounds -- on you … You just can't breathe," Walter said.
Oetinger said this sort of incident is a common occurrence, and fire crews make it a point to train for it.
"Palm tree workers will get up into the tree, and large portions of the dead prongs will break away from the tree, slide down on top of them, entrapping them," he said.
The name of the victim has not been released. The Phoenix Police Department will investigate the incident.
What? it wasn’t a pitbull. Maybe we should ban palm trees.
I heard that this happens all the time. The tree somehow envelopes the cutter and suffocates them. Freaky. I think I would change to dynomite.
“Dirty Jobs” did a segment that involved a guy that cut palm trees. The host, Mike Rowe, wanted absolutely nothing to do with attempting to do THAT job.
Palm trees are also homes to Scorpion nests. Could be the guy got stung enough times to cause his lungs to quit...the venom is a neuro toxin......
Palm tress can be very cool looking as items of landscape but when they get to be a few decades old, they get to be complete pains in the a** as far as maintenance.
Given that the workers know this; wonder if an earlier phone call may have helped. . .sad demise, in any case. More sad; if it could have been avoided, of course.
I am on a Vol fire department. We once had a call to a situation like this. The tree cutter was careful enough to use a tree stand device to use as a cutting platform. He got nailed by a giant limb from a silver maple tree. I think the tree stand save him, it provided some cushion. The poor guy was badly hurt.
Pitbull? Nobody said it was a pitbull. Read the story next time.
Other than on a beach, a Palm Tree looks ridiculous.
RIP.
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